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MUSIC COLUMN BY RICHARD MARTIN
The isolationists in Portland's music scene have decried what they see as a lack of local talent among the 350 acts at this year's North by Northwest, but about one-third of the performers will be lugging their equipment only a mile or so to play the festival. Following are Timbre's top-10 picks of Portland NXNW participants: 1. Sunset Valley (LaLuna, 1 am Saturday)--Songs from the band's 1998 debut, The New Speed, sizzle with intensity in a live setting. The quintet revs up for power-pop mayhem in the should-be hit "Shanghai Shelley" and meanders through spacier terrain in "Supergirl," keeping the buzz running all the way through. 2. Pinehurst Kids (Satyricon, 11 pm Thursday)--Almost a less acerbic doppelgänger of Green Day's Billy Joe, this trio's lead singer and guitarist, Joe Davis, similarly crafts smart punk-pop anthems and delivers them with an irresistible snarl. The Kids have toured their arses off in '98, and they recently signed to the Chicago label Four Alarm. 3. Marigold (LaLuna, 11 pm Thursday)--OK, I'm cheating here, but this Springfield, Ore., quartet cut its shiny Brit-pop teeth in Portland's clubs. Co-frontmen Jacob Arnold and Travis Ferguson have written some catchy songs, and the record biz has noticed; Marigold has inked with Outpost for a '99 debut. 4. Cool Nutz (Roseland, midnight Thursday)--He's fashioned himself as the boisterous mouthpiece of the local hip-hop scene, often at the expense of his watery, R&B-plagued music. But a new CD indicates that this rapper is finally finding his flow with harder beats and craftier rhymes. 5. Tra La La (Berbati's Pan, 9 pm Friday)--After a shaky start earlier in the year, Honey Owens has shaped Tra La La into a tight femme-pop outfit capable of whimsical hooks and explosive choruses reminiscent of Kim Deal's best work. 6. Five Fingers of Funk (LaLuna, midnight Friday)--The radio trade publication Hits recently elevated F3 to buzz-band status, but locals have been grooving to Pete Miser's whimsically detailed, articulate raps for years. 7. The State Flowers (Cobalt Lounge, 1 am Saturday)--This quartet is the rock outlet for a pair of noteworthy solo artists, Corrina Repp and Pete Ficht, both of whom write guitar-based tunes that ricochet between reflective, downcast balladry and jaunty up-tempo pop. 8. The Flatirons (Key Largo, 10 pm Saturday)--Like the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Gillian Welch, this band respects the roots of Americana; it plays reverent country-style tunes and hides its modern edge beneath a panoply of fiddle runs and guitar strums. 9. The Dolomites (Sandovals, 9 pm Thursday)--If I had a pint of whiskey for every band that copped the Irish-rock vibe of the Pogues and the Waterboys, I'd invite you all back to my place, and I'd hire the Dolomites as entertainment; the Portland act is one of the few that accurately captures the rollicking spirit of a Dublin pub band. 10. Bingo (Mission Theater, 11 pm Friday)--Kevin Richey teamed with some of his Golden Delicious mates and Cornershop sitarist Anthony Saffery to produce an intriguing, countrified blues 'n' raga debut as Bingo. Rumor has it that Saffery will join Richey at this performance. From the Weird Music Dept.: Local experimental rock troupe Jackie-O Motherfucker toured the nation for six weeks this summer, stopping in at landmark clubs such as Chicago's Lounge Ax and Hoboken's Maxwell's. Thurston Moore heard some of the live recordings and will release them on his respected Ecstatic Peace! imprint. The talented guitar-and-everything-else band also has a full-length on Imp, Cross Pollinate. J.O.M.F.'s success caps a banner month for Portland's avant-garde set. Trumans Water last week issued its most inspired record yet, Fragments of a Lucky Break, on Austin's Emperor Jones label. More outré is Tank, a duo that just released a self-titled album recorded in a rusted structure pictured on the CD cover. Echoes from inside the 65-foot water tank augment the tranquil or clanking soundscapes rendered on cello, clarinet, banjo, percussion, slide trombone and accordion. Portland Postscripts: The Aug. 17 issue of The New Yorker features a hideous illustration of Elliott Smith that makes him look like a drunken Tim Robbins...Quasi's nationally acclaimed album Featuring "Birds" will fly overseas when England's hip Domino label releases it throughout Europe in October. The duo plays dates abroad later this month.
The Fall United Schach Corporation
originally published August 19, 1998 |
