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Mike Watt
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LUNA
PHOTO:JILL GREENBERG |
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Spins of the Week: Various Artists, The End of Violence: Songs from the Original Soundtrack (Outpost)-- Aside from being an important director, Wim Wenders is a music tastemaker as well. Here he's assembled an incredible cast of influential musicians, including Tom Waits, DJ Shadow, Michael Stipe, Ry Cooder, Roy Orbison and Los Lobos. C'est magnifique! Portishead, Portishead (Go Beat/London)-- On its brand-new album, Portishead emerges as the Led Zeppelin of trip-hop, marrying resonant beats with sultry samples to provide a sensuous and often jarring backdrop to Beth Gibbons' distinctively drippy voice. |
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Swoon 23 plays its record-release show Friday, Oct. 3, at EJ's with Sidecar, the Feelings and Sunset Valley. PHOTO: MARC TRUNZ |
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Luna performed a minor musical miracle at LaLuna Saturday night. The New York quartet's four-chord grooves and eccentric lyrics created one of the most uplifting vibes the Southeast club has experienced in some time. At one point, I'd say it was during "23 Minutes in Brussels," I felt as though I were in a place with 600 people who had listened to this song in their living room, or had sex to it, or put away the laundry while sneaking a shuffled dance step to it. The band played a cavalcade of shimmering songs that came off like accidental anthems, although Luna always stopped short of becoming bombastic; as a friend kept saying, "Luna is all about holding back." Dean Wareham and Sean Eden built dense sonic layers with their guitars (and effects pedals), and Wareham crooned succinct, catchy lines like "Say a prayer for you and me/Say a prayer/Tell me do you miss me," striking a romantic tone that split the difference between sadness and glee. During a between-song lull, a group of women made no effort to hide their feelings, yelling to bassist Justin Harwood, "We love you, Justin!" Luna repaid the devotion with a set that drew from each of its four albums, though it leaned heavily on the new Pup Tent. After a nearly two-hour show, the band conceded to calls for a second encore and dusted off Donovan's psychedelic pop song "Season of the Witch" before saying good night. It capped a day for Luna that also included an in-store appearance and a radio performance, an unusual display of activity for a veteran band from New York with a major-label deal. It's also unusual that Elektra has stuck by Luna during its career despite modest record sales, as one of the supposed causes of music industry malaise is a lack of artist development. Given the strong showing at LaLuna Saturday for a band with no radio hits, Luna either signaled that perseverance and vision can pay off or proved to be a pleasant throwback to the less abhorrent period before alternative rock became big business. |
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In another quaint reminder of the recent past, Luna allowed for a local opening slot on its bill, a practice that's becoming extinct at big rock shows these days. The beneficiary was Swoon 23, which played prior to Austin's 16 Deluxe and Luna. The resilient Portland quartet has survived a break-up, a record company merger and getting shafted by a major label, Mercury, to release its second album of meandering trance-pop tunes, The Legendary Ether Pony (Tim/Kerr). |
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At LaLuna, Swoon 23 matched its swirling, atmospheric songs to Jeff Wonderful's visual backdrops. Wonderful, who joined the band on its August East Coast tour with the Dandy Warhols and Polara, uses an overhead projector to create psychedelic images that accompany the droning, subtly shifting songs in Swoon's repertoire. Moe Music: The Seattle club Moe broadcast many of its shows on the iMUSIC Web site before closing earlier this year. Los Angeles' World Domination label has compiled 14 songs from the recorded performances for the CD Live at Moe. The collection features Seattle acts like the Presidents of the United States of America, Silkworm and Goodness as well as two Portland acts: Pond plays a raw, punked-out version of its "Rebury Me," and Jessamine contributes a five-minute instrumental that combines jazz drumming and avant-garde guitar and synth playing. Correction Time: In last week's Timbre, I mistakenly attributed AC/DC's "Sin City" to Kiss. My apologies to fans of both bands for any discomfort this may have caused. Electronica Dis: For the second time this year, the Chemical Brothers' tour won't be stopping in Portland. To experience the English duo's block rockin' beats, you'll have to travel to Seattle's Mercer Arena, where the Brothers will perform with Death in Vegas Oct. 28. Why do Tom and Ed keep dissing Portland? A source at Monqui Presents, which is promoting the Seattle show, says our city just
didn't fit in the itinerary this time around. |
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