Matthew and the Arrogant Sea opened for Midlake at Wonder Ballroom in Portland last night. I entered the room a Midlake fan, but unexpectedly walked out a Matthew and the Arrogant Sea fan.
Darryl Smyers of Dallas Observer calls the band’s songs “lush and intricate one minute, lo-fi and ragged the next.” That sounds about right. The article also notes comparisons to The Beach Boys and Fleet Foxes, but from the selection of songs we saw last night, the comparison I drew was one between lead singer Jacob Gray’s vocal style and that of Colin Meloy of The Decemberists.
I appreciate that Gray came out in a sport coat prepared to do his thing, but shed it in the process. At first, I was thinking who is this professor of rock, but through his songs and a funny dance he did, he revealed himself and ultimately that’s what I love to see in an artist. Matthew and the Arrogant Sea only played 38 minutes–the length of an E.P. I’m ready to see what they do with a 90-minute set. For those attending SXSW this month, check ’em out.
Midlake is a band we’ve been wanting to see for some time. Their 2006 release on Bella Union, The Trials of Van Occupanther, is a favorite. Like The Decemberists (again), Midlake takes listeners on a sonic journey. Their songs are passages in an epic. When listening to these bands you just sail away on their music. I guess I was expecting to do that last night. I wanted to taste the salted sea coming over the bow of the Midlake vessel, but I didn’t exactly. There were moments, but generally it wasn’t a brisk outing.
Serial entrepreneur, MarkAndreessen, thinks print media companies need to take a page from the Spanish Empire’s playbook and make real their commitment to digital.
Legend has it that when Cortes landed in Mexico in the 1500s, he ordered his men to burn the ships that had brought them there to remove the possibility of doing anything other than going forward into the unknown. Marc Andreessen has the same advice for old media companies: “Burn the boats.â€
In particular, he was talking about print media such as newspapers and magazines, and his longstanding recommendation that they should shut down their print editions and embrace the Web wholeheartedly. “You gotta burn the boats,†he told me, “you gotta commit.†His point is that if traditional media companies don’t burn their own boats, somebody else will.
I like the imagery Andreessen’s using, but instead of burning the boats, it might be smart to keep all oars in the water, as it were. It’s not like there won’t be printed newspapers and magazines in the future. There will be. They might become rather expensive–as they are expensive to produce and distribute–but they’ll be available.
There’s an increasingly tiresome argument being made in the corporate suits, government offices and newsrooms of Portland, Oregon. The argument goes like this: Portland doesn’t have enough top tier talent to properly grow a company, nor enough venture capital.
“It’s not about Portland,” says Dave Goldberg, SurveyMonkey’s new California-based chief executive. “It’s really just about the Bay Area.”
“My job is to shepherd this company to be a great company, and if we can’t do it in Portland, we’re going to do it someplace else,” Dave Hersh, Jive Software’s CEO, said last fall. “I’m disappointed we weren’t able to pull it all off in Portland.”
Jive and Ensequence maintain Portland headquarters, and all three companies have retained sizable contingents here. Still, last year’s executive exodus was especially dispiriting in the context of Oregon’s wilted economy.
In related news, Laura Gunderson of The Oregonian reports that Lucy Activewear is moving from Portland to San Leandro, Calif., eliminating as many as 95 corporate and distribution center jobs here. Lucy, it’s important to note, isn’t locally owned.
In addition to the lack of available capital and talent beef, Oregonians also suffer from rumors that we don’t work hard and that our taxes on corporations are too high. I’ll leave the tax argument to others more qualified to speak, but the work ethic gripe I’ll gladly mangle. First, the argument is false. This state and all the great companies, schools and cultural institutions in it weren’t put here by a genie. They were put here by the pioneering, passionate and deeply committed citizens of the Beaver State.
Plus, too many places with a notable work ethic are soulless husks of a city. I don’t want to be part of that. Do you? Work is a central aspect of life in Oregon, as it is elsewhere, but we strive for balance here. The arts are important here; we like to eat amazing food and drink local wine and beer; and we go camping, hiking, skiing, etc.
Good Magazine is sharing a particularly good idea here.
Having lived in San Francisco, I know what a pain it is to park there. Sometimes you go round and around for half an hour to an hour just to find an empty spot, which is insanity, but that doesn’t stop it from happening.
Dynamic parking meter pricing and availability is technology that’s solving an actual need. Thank you Streetline. So many of the tech developments that grab the media’s attention are inconsequential in the grand scheme. For instance any news about Facebook is completely wasted on me.
Barton Carroll’s fourth solo effort, Together You and I, was released January 19th on Skybucket Records. The album is full of compelling lyrics and interesting melodies. It’s Americana, but rich and dark, like an espresso stout to the rest of the genre’s amber ale.
A North Carolina native (and former member of Crooked Fingers) who now lives in Seattle, Carroll’s songs are structured in the folk traditions he grew up with, but he trades in standard instrumentation for the west coast horn sound of Craig Flory, and the production of jazz bassist Matt Weiner. He also sings his first duets with Seattle singer Anna Lisa Notter.
His guitar work isn’t necessarily extraordinary, but it builds cascading walls of sound that wrap around you, creating a nice little room where the songs dance amid filtered light and images of longing. His stories aren’t afraid to back off and let the instruments go for a spell. His voice cracks now and then the way skin cracks on a well-worked pair of hands. Honest is the best word for it.
Barton Carroll is the kind of songwriter that gets taken for granted. In a modestly fragile tenor, he relates real stories instead of impressionistic poetry or woe-is-me folk confessions, full of acute observations and complex emotional developments. It’s literary in the sense that he has a strong grasp of character and voice, not in the sense that he favors big words or clever turns of phrase. Carroll may never be called innovative, but he can’t be called showy either, which places him in the school of troubadours like Freedy Johnston and John Hiatt, who have a similar folksy bent and a shared itch to try on new perspectives.
After giving Carroll’s new album a listen, I’m impressed with how patient he is as an artist. It seems like he’s coming from another time, and that’s a particularly nice feeling in today’s rush-to-discover-this-and-do-that world.
Court Yard Hounds are Emily Robison and Martie Maguire from the Dixie Chicks. Their debut album is available for pre-order at this time. With a pre-order, you will be able to download four album tracks immediately and receive special access to tickets for the band’s theater shows this spring.
For most Americans polar bears are animals they see from time to time in the zoo or maybe on a PBS special. In other words, the polar bear is totally remote, whereas the things that need to be fueled with oil–one’s car, one’s home, one’s business–are all quite near and dear. Hence, how much do we really care about the plight of the polar bear or what happens way way up there in Alaska? The answer to that rhetorical question is, of course, not enough.
Frances Beinecke, President of Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), reminded me in an email that this year is the 50th Anniversary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Sadly, her occasion for doing so wasn’t a party announcement, but a grave letter of concern, asking for help now that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has given Shell the green light begin exploratory drilling in the area. Because what we care about as a nation, now as always, is the discovery and removal of natural resources.
The Minerals Management Service, part of the federal Interior Department, yesterday gave Shell the green light to begin exploratory wells off the north coast of Alaska in an Arctic area that is home to large numbers of endangered bowhead whales and polar bears, as well as walruses, ice seals and other species. The permission would run from July to October next year, though Shell has promised to suspend operations from its drill ship from late August when local Inuit people embark on subsistence hunting.
Environmentalists condemned the decision to allow drilling, saying it would generate industrial levels of noise in the water and pollute both the air and surrounding water. Rebecca Noblin, an Alaskan specialist with the conservation group the Centre for Biological Diversity, said: “We’re disappointed to see the Obama administration taking decisions that will threaten the Arctic. It might as well have been the Bush administration.”
That’s damning criticism and fans of The President might bristle at the suggestion. But facts are facts.
In related news, Willamette Week recently ran an article that asked people who supported Obama for President what they think now, one year into his run. Lawyer and peace activist, John Bradach, isn’t pleased.
I was disappointed when he adopted the war team that Bush had left in place. For Obama to take those guys on, he really has allowed himself to be maneuvered into adopting those policies. And that’s not why I voted for him. Now I’m really disappointed, more than cautiously disappointed.
I do not want to hear Barack Obama justifying war, period. I am tired of wasting American kids on that war and on that policy, which is not going to win and will just be an indefinite commitment of American blood and resources.
Obama promised change, but change isn’t easy to implement in Washington, DC. But there’s more to it than that. Policy wise, change was always a false promise from Obama, a centrist Democrat.
Obama has been building consensus since his days on the Harvard Law Review, and he’s not about to veer from that practice now. Yet to truly change the way things are, the art of compromise itself needs to be compromised.
Grant-Lee Phillips took the Mississippi Studios stage last night, alone, just a man, his guitar and a head full of stories. Except for a few unconscious talkers in the back, the capacity audience hung on Phillips’ every note and every word.
Phillips appeared very comfortable on stage. He’s clearly a seasoned performer, but there’s something else. There’s a vibrant, hopeful message in his brand of lyrical narrative and six string delivery.
NPR says “Phillips knows how to radiate hope in quotable, genuinely inspirational ways that steer clear of mawkishness.”
In a music world full of hipper than thou attitude, Phillips is like a strong, nutrient-rich wind coming in off the Pacific. iTunes names his 2009 release Little Moon the year’s Best Singer/Songwriter Album, according to American Songwriter.
In the video above Phillips calls Little Moon his best work yet. I’m already a big fan of Virginia Creeper and Mobilize. Now, after last night’s show, I’m ready to indulge in a batch of new songs from this American craftsman.
“You had bluegrass and you had rock, and in that respect there wasn’t much happening. You had the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and others with drums and stuff, but they were more country. We took it to a different place. We played with a lot more abandon.” -Drew Emmitt
Leftover Salmon first played together in 1989. To celebrate their 20th anniversary last fall, LOS teamed up with Jambase to deliver a special four-part feature on the band’s history and a free two-CD album that includes rare live tracks from 1991 through 2009.
Selecting, mastering and organizing the material fell largely on the shoulders of Leftover Salmon manger John Joy, who along with band archivist Chad Staehly and Eric Abramson, who did the Leftover Salmon Years In Your Ears DVD, narrowed it down from hundreds – if not thousands – of songs to bring this live compilation to life.
Track Listing for the Double CD Length Download “Celebrating 20 Years”
1. Blister in the Sun – 05/04/1991 McCabe’s Boulder, CO
2. Just Before The Evening – 05/04/1991 McCabe’s Boulder, CO
3. Whiskey Before Breakfast/Over The Waterfall – 05/04/1991 McCabe’s – Boulder, CO
4. Who Stole My Monkey – 05/25/1991 Stage Stop – Rollinsville, CO
5. Mystery – 10/02/1993 – Fox Theater – Boulder, CO
6. Weights – 10/02/1993 – Fox Theater – Boulder, CO
7. Dance On Your Head – 10/19/1994 Music Farm – Charleston, SC
8. Head Bag – 10/19/1994 Music Farm – Charleston, SC
9. Hot Burrito Breakdown – 08/07/1995 The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
10. River’s Rising – 07/14/1996 Great American Music Festival – Winter Park, CO
11. Funky Mountain Fogdown (with Pete Sears) – 04/14/1997 The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
12. Up On The Hill Where We Do The Boogie – 02/16/1998 JR’s Dickson Street Ball Room – Fayetteville, AR
13. Little Maggie – 02/22/1998 Tipitina’s – New Orleans, LA
14. Mama Look a Boo Boo (with Karl Denson) – 04/22/1999 Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO
15. Ooh Las Vegas (with Trey Anastasio) – 09/20/1999 Rialto Theater – Tucson, AZ
16. Nobody’s Fault But Mine (with John Bell, Jeff Austin, Pete Sears and John Cowan) – 09/09/2000 Planet Salmon – Lyons, CO
17. Austin Five (Mark Vann Original, Never Released) – 03/26/2001 The Canopy – Urbana, IL
18. Teen Angst (with David Lowery) – 09/24 & 09/25/2002 David Lowery’s Studio – Richmond, VA
19. Dark Hollow (with Del McCoury) – 11/09/2002 The NorVa – Norfolk, VA
20. Rocky Road Blues (with Mike Gordon) – 12/04/2002 Higher Ground – Winooski, VT
21. Ain’t No Use (with David Grisman) – 01/29/2003 McNear’s Mystic Theatre – Petaluma, CA
22. Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow (with Sam Bush and Ross Martin) – 02/20/2003 Fox Theater – Boulder, CO
23. Breakin Thru – 12/31/2004 Fox Theater – Boulder, CO
24. Catfish John (with Michael Wooten) – 12/31/2004 Fox Theater – Boulder, CO
25. Valley Of The Full Moon – 07/28/2007 Red Rocks Amphitheatre – Morrison, CO
26. Ask The Fish – 07/28/2007 Red Rocks Amphitheatre – Morrison, CO
27. Vampire Blues – 10/31/2008 Fillmore Auditorium – Denver, CO
28. Rise Up, Wake and Bake – 07/03/2009 High Sierra Music Festival – Quincy, CA
This is a ruthless collection of live tunes from LOS. Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass brings joy to people’s lives. To experience this goodness, head over to Jambase and get your download on.
Since moving to Portland from San Francisco, Coykendall has produced, engineered and performed with M. Ward, She & Him and Blitzen Trapper. But he has been writing songs and making records since the mid 80s. Midwesterner’s might remember Coykendall in the Kansas prairie-psyche band Klyde Konnor; Americana fans might remember him the seminal San Francisco group The Old Joe Clarks; and a lucky few will have copies of his 2005 underground classic Hello, Hello, Hello, also available from Field Hymns.
The Unbearable Being of Likeness offers a diversity of sounds, from mellow ditties to melodic rockers. Coykendall’s compositions share something with Jay Farrar’s campfire comfortability, but his work in the studio mastering the songs adds layers to the album, making it a much spacier, more nuanced affair.
