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DTR Recommends Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside

September 2, 2010 3:01 pm

by Lauren Hudgins

I was walking around camp at Pickathon, heard Sallie Ford coming through the trees and went running for the stage. How fabulous! Sallie was one of the best voices I heard at the very talented music festival.

This bluesy rocksy group from Portland will be playing Thursday night of MFNW.

with-
Mbilly
Frank Turner
Justin Townes Earle

September 9, 2010
$15 or MFNW wristband
Berbati’s Pan
10 SW 3rd Avenue
corner of 3rd and Ankeny

Photos of Chatham County Line at Pickathon

2:29 pm

by Lauren Hudgins

Chatham County Line at Pickathon 2010

All photos by Zachary Van Buuren

Titus Andronicus Coming to MFNW

September 1, 2010 6:25 pm

by Lauren Hudgins

Saturday of MusicFest NW has the hopeless allure of the Smashing Pumpkins. If you didn’t get tickets (sold out) or a VIP pass (sold out) you have little chance of making it through the line of all the nostalgic fools from the PDX metro area who wants to relive the most depressing points of their teenage years.

But let me suggest a more energetic alternative. Titus Andronicus aren’t exactly cheerful, but they’re not nearly as tragic as their Shakespearean namegiver, and a lot less brutal to watch. Sounding simultaneously punk and emo, they are discontentedly raw, raucous, and reminiscent of The Replacements. Their most recent album, The Monitor, uses speeches and allusions to the Civil War as a unifying theme to their songs of American disenchantment.

I’m also friends with their guitarist, Amy Klein. Check out her fascinating tour diary. She is an upcoming feminist figure in rock and a damn good guitarist no matter what she has between her legs.

Is it so wrong of me to want to believe that the spirit of rock and roll is still alive, and that all those 1950’s teenagers who became infatuated with the Beatles, and that before that, America’s blues and gospel traditions, and after that, Riot Grrrl in the 90’s, all meant something in the sense of a grand historical continuum—that they were leading our country somewhere, and not just entertaining the crowds as the whole damn ship began to sink? What is there left for us to do, and for that old lady at the gas station who has probably lost a son in Iraq, when the economy is failing and our education system sucks, and the media is dying, and we’re all escaping into a parallel universe online—what is there left for us to do but try to right the wrongs that have befallen us. What does some magazine’s airbrushed idea of beauty have to do with that old woman’s life, and what does it have to do with mine?

From “Rock and Roll Is Dead“

Titus Andronicus is playing Saturday, September 11th at Backspace. A small, intimate venue where you won’t have to push over any goths teetering on enormous black boots to get a good view.

With-
BOAT
The Globes
And And And
$13 or with MFNW wristband
115 NW 5th Ave.
503.248.2900

Trailer for “The Worriers”

August 31, 2010 1:36 pm

by Lauren Hudgins

Poetry gangs in Portland. I’m intrigued.

Commercial for MFNW

August 29, 2010 4:46 pm

by Lauren Hudgins

The official commercial for MFNW. Coming up September 8-12.

Bonnie Prince Billy at Pickathon

1:45 pm

by Lauren Hudgins

“I’m Bonnie Prince Billy. We’re happy to serve you tonight. If you have any complaints or suggestions just think about those for a while. Think about them in your sleeping bags. Think about whether you’d like them said to you after you just played a show.”

Bonnie Prince Billy on the main stage, Sunday night of Pickathon. Photo by Zachary Van Buuren.

Shinichi Moriyama at Sequential Art Gallery

12:33 pm

by Lauren Hudgins

To celebrate the fifth year of showcasing local artists, Sequential Art Gallery again features the work of Shinichi Moriyama. His new work, Portland’s Best Outsider Haunts, takes us on a tour of unpopulated and perhaps even unknown locations. His painting search for the beauty in the decrepitude, reassuring us that our imperfect world is only temporary in the large scheme of things. Portland’s Best Outsider Haunts opens First Thursday, September 2nd from 6-10pm, and runs through September 25.

Shinichi Moriyama has lived in Portland since 1995 and has shown at Sequential Art Gallery annually since the space opened in September 2005. Not much else is known about the mysterious acupuncture practitioner, except that he apparently enjoys taking long walks through the decrepit architectural remains of mankind.

Sequential Art Gallery + Studio
328 NW Broadway #113
PDX OR 97209
503-916-9293
www.sequentialartgallery.com

Pickathon 2010 From the Air

August 17, 2010 8:11 pm

by Lauren Hudgins

Guildworks created the stunning stretched fabric patterns over our heads at Pickathon. They allowed us to go 72 feet in the air (safely harnessed in) on the same cherry pickers used to hang the lines between trees. Yes, there were many jokes about getting high at Pickathon. We have gorgeous images from both day and night.

All photos by Zachary Van Buuren.

The City Repair Dome at Pickathon

August 16, 2010 9:16 pm

by Lauren Hudgins

Photo by Zachary Van Buuren

The City Repair Project built a geodesic dome in the woods at Pickathon, stringing little white and blue lights on a pinnacle. It was a space for musicians who were not on stage to meet and play together. They also provided a ridiculous amount of free food, primarily produce. Although there were many delicious and tempting concession carts, the dome was the only way to keep both a full stomach and cash in pocket. Organically Grown donated boxes and boxes of fruits and vegetables for City Repair to feed festival participants. When possible, Dome attendants cooked meals and blended smoothies to share.

Vote for Adam Elliot Davis on Mad Men

August 15, 2010 5:36 am

by Lauren Hudgins

I REAAAAALLLY hate internet popularity contests, but an actor I’ve worked with, Adam Elliot Davis, is submitting himself to mass approval or indifference to get on Mad Men with a Banana Republic contest. I like Adam. And he looks like he should be on Mad Men. And how cool would it be to have someone from Portland on Mad Men? So I’m throwing my support behind him.