Starting here in Portland, the mini tour is occurring during the week Smith’s would have turned 44 years old, August 4 through August 10th. Some of Smith’s old hang-out spots, Los Angeles, New York and Austin will also host celebrations, each city’s show benefiting a different charity. Portland’s performance will support Outside In, a social service agency here in the city whose mission is to help homeless youth and low-income individuals with shelter, food and medical aid.

Gus Van Sant, a long time fan of Smith, will be hosting the night at Doug Fir. Musicians set to perform during the benefits include Van Sant, members of the band Grandaddy, Rhett Miller, Jon Brion, Chris Thile and more.
Doors open to the 21+ shows and 7:30 with the show beginning at 8. Tickets went on sale yesterday and can be purchased here for $30-$35.

Here is Smith performing his song “Son of Sam” from his Live at the Olympia acoustic set.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The post Celebrate what would been Elliott Smith’s birthday with a benefit concert appeared first on Oregon Music News.

From the Headphones’ EP, available for free download. EP release show is Thursday, June 20 at Shaker and Vine with Those Willows plus the Weather Machine, 8pm, $5.

Adam Brock says this about himself:

There was nothing I dreaded more in my adolescence than the school year’s first bus ride. There are few social situations you can’t avoid in middle school. You aren’t required to join clubs or sports teams, school dances are optional, teachers rarely call you out if you do your work and don’t mouth off…it’s easy to get lost in a crowded hallway and coast through the day in relative obscurity. This is not so on a school bus. The giant orange behemoth rumbles to a stop at the edge of your driveway. With a hiss the doors fling open and an ancient creature stares down at you, it’s eyes masked by huge tinted glasses. Maybe it doesn’t even have eyes! You climb the steep steps, staring at your feet, holding your breath. At the top of the stairs is the aisle–it stretches endlessly to the back of the bus and is bordered by rows and rows of hot brown bus seats, overflowing with wild laughter and crazy eyes. You start to walk, feeling their stares taking in every aspect of your appearance, searching for anomalies. And if they find one…(shudder). Your fervent bus stop prayer has been answered! You spot an empty seat and slide next to the window, unzipping the smaller compartment of your backpack and taking out a cd player and an oversized pair of headphones. And you slip them on and everything is fine. You melt into the sound and you are invisible and invincible and nothing captures and conquers the fears of your racing heart like the music streaming through those tiny speakers. That is the kind of music that has made the most difference in my life, and that is the music I dream of making. Everyone finds solace in song, regardless of age and circumstance. I hope this music serves that purpose for some. Thanks for listening!

-Adam

Adam Brock lives in Portland, OR. He wrote these three songs and recorded them in bedrooms and studios in Seattle and Portland in the winter and spring of 2013. With a few exceptions (cellos, violins, and some drums) he plays all the sounds on this recording. A huge thanks goes to Justin and Liese Freund, Scott Wilson, Lee Barbara, Tim and Jean Tingwald, and Jon Haas for being such generous and awesome friends.

The post Video of the day: Adam Brock – ‘Headphones’ (Premiere) appeared first on Oregon Music News.

Photo by Jon T. Cruz

Beth Hart recently thrilled fans at her jam-packed Music Millennium in-store on June 7th, belting out song after song to a captivated audience. Hart showed off her pipes as she performed select tracks from her back-catalog along with new cuts from her latest album Bang Bang Boom Boom, including the tile cut and “Spirit of God.”

Oregon Music News caught up with Hart a couple of days before her in-store in Portland, having recently finished a sold-out spring tour of the United States. “I’m thankful to my fans for what they did—they sold these shows out. I don’t have a lot of pressure, I’m not a huge artist that is selling out 60,000-person stadiums,” said Hart modestly.

Photo by Jon T. Cruz

On Bang Bang Boom Boom Hart once again enlisted producer Kevin Shirley, best known for working with heavier acts like Iron Maiden, Dream Theater and Black Country Communion. No stranger to Hart’s music, Shirley also produced the Beth Hart/Joe Bonamassa albums Don’t Explain in 2011 and Seesaw in 2013. But Hart had been on Shirley’s radar for some time before that.

“I had apparently met Kevin before,” Hart explained. “When I met him [again] I extended my hand and he said, ‘I’ve met you before, I almost produced the follow-up to your Immortal record when you were on Atlantic Records.’ I said ‘Oh my God! I can’t remember you!’ which wasn’t surprising because I was in my drug phase,” confessed Hart. During the recording sessions for her first collaboration with Bonamassa Hart developed a respect for Shirley’s work ethic, witnessing firsthand his ability to get the best performance from the artists that he worked with. It was natural that she reunited with him on Bang Bang Boom Boom, an album that has been receiving critical acclaim abroad as well as in the United States.

“Kevin Shirley is the shit. He works at a fast pace and he records everything like you would in a live performance. So if I’m singing and playing piano I’m also playing along with the bass, drums and guitar. That’s how he does it and that’s just so refreshing to me because it allows you to let it be what it is and doesn’t allow for time to overanalyze things.”

Fans may be wondering when Beth Hart will return to Portland for another performance. “We’re working on that,” she promised. “I’ll be heading over to Europe for performances with Joe [Bonamassa] and then I’ll be back in the fall for some U.S. dates. Right now it looks like it will be with David Crosby and Kenny Wayne Shepherd—I’m excited about that. There will be a Portland area show on there,” said Hart.

During her conversation with OMN she shared the story behind three of her songs; one of the sleepers on Bang Bang Boom Boom, “The Ugliest House on the Block”; her collaboration with Slash on “Mother Maria” from the Slash album; and her performance of “I’d Rather Go Blind” with Jeff Beck at The Kennedy Center Honors which also appears as a bonus cut on the U.S. pressing of Bang Bang Boom Boom.

“The Ugliest House on the Block”

“That’s a metaphor for how life isn’t going as you planned it and you throw your arms up in the air and you say ‘So what?!’ It’s like when something gets so bad you just have to laugh—you have to laugh it off otherwise it’s just too much to bare. I absolutely do live in the ugliest house on the block, that’s a fact. My husband and I had got back from a run around the lake and we were walking up to our street and I said to him, ‘We really do live in the ugliest house on the block, don’t we?’ That day I picked up my guitar and started writing about that. It’s not a sad song in any way—it’s about looking at things positively. Oh well, so what? I’m alive! I can work through this.”

“Mother Maria” (with Slash)

[Slash] saw me performing at a show that I had done with Jeff [Beck] at the House of Blues. This was after the Beck tour was over. I was on the east coast at the time and I received a phone call from Slash who was interested in writing a song with me. I said ‘cool,’ we go together, we write a song for the record. He’s such a classy guy. Instead of having his manager or someone from his label call me, Slash took the time himself to call me to let me know that ‘Mother Maria’ wouldn’t make the final cut of the album. Instead it would be on the iTunes version and the deluxe version of the album. Instead of having someone do bullshit like that in this business—because nobody wants to be the bad guy—he called me himself. He said, ‘I’m sorry the song just doesn’t fit on the album. I will make sure that it makes it on the iTunes release of the album.’ I was very disappointed but I didn’t let him know that. I thanked him for letting me know. It was a great experience writing and recording that song. He returned the favor later when he played on one of my songs, ‘Sister Heroine.’ He’s very sweet.”

“I’d Rather Go Blind” (with Jeff Beck)

“About eight years ago I had just done a song with Toots Thielemans—he’s a fantastic harmonica player. We had recorded a song for one of his records; I sang on Billie Holiday’s ‘I’ve Got the Right to Sing the Blues.’ Long story short, Jeff heard it and he wanted to write with me. I flew to England and had a writing session with Jeff for a day. It went lovely I was just blown away by his talent. Within a few months he called me and said, ‘I just saw your DVD and I want you to be my singer. I’m doing my first tour in the United States with a singer since I worked with Rod Stewart in the ’70s. Will you go out on tour with me?’ I heard that he was very impressed by the Live at the Paradiso show that we filmed in Holland. I did the tour and I sang on six or seven songs and the rest was Jeff and his band showcasing his guitar work. I’ll admit part of me was frustrated that I wasn’t out there on stage for the whole show. I have an ego, man, I wanted to be performing—then there was part of me that was glad that I wasn’t because I got a chance to sit on the side of the stage and watch who I think is the greatest guitarist that has ever lived. I was absolutely floored by him night after night. I loved his kindness and his humility. I also saw him get nervous before a performance. Jeff has that kind of teenage energy about him. My husband and I got very close with him and his wife Sandra.

“Time passed and I bumped into him at festivals but he and I didn’t get a chance to work together. I was doing the Jools Holland show in England…I love that show and I was so nervous about performing on the show. Jeff and Sandra came down to the set to be supportive. After the show we spent a little time hanging out, at the end of the night Jeff said, ‘I’ll be calling you in a few weeks. Can you keep the line open?’ I said ‘Of course.’ It’s Jeff Beck! He called and asked if I would perform on the Kennedy Center Honors with him in honoring Buddy Guy. I happened to be starting a tour in England two or three weeks after he asked me and he’d come down to the shows and we’d rehearse. I had just added another guitarist in my band it was his first show and we had been playing a pretty big venue in England. Can you imagine there is Jeff Beck standing five feet away from him on the side of the stage! [laughs] Can you imagine? You’re an up-and-coming guitarist, you’ve been asked to learn 50-something songs, you’re playing in London, England and you have one of the greatest guitarists of all time sitting five feet away from you! It was the funniest fucking thing! [laughs] The Kennedy Center Honors show went off without a hitch and it was a blast. Jeff Beck is a classy guy.”

Watch Beth Hart & Jeff Beck perform “I’d Rather Go Blind” at the Kennedy Center Honors:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The post Slash, Jeff Beck and ‘Bang Bang Boom Boom’: three from the vault with Beth Hart appeared first on Oregon Music News.

From the album Pale Green Ghosts

Pitchfork called John Grant‘s newest album, Pale Green Ghosts, “an intense, angry record of inconsolable heartbreak, crooned with authority over luscious electro,” but the former Czars front-man is unapologetic in his sharing. And it’s not depressing but cathartic, even. “Grant’s

John Grant

regal baritone makes his sadness and his anger sound that much more serious– but throughout the album there’s some delight mixed in with all the spite, a sadistic little smirk lodged in the flesh-ripping sarcasm.”

This song, below, featuring Sinead O’Connor, is moody, but softer – and the nicest, musically, while still very strong, lyrically. The heartbreak is obvious, but the healing is also evident, sprinkled in as he reflects his sadness but takes back the control in the chorus of this song, belting out, “I am the greatest motherfucker that you are ever gonna meet.”

John Grant performs at the Doug Fir Lounge this Friday, June 21 – Leave a comment for your chance to win a pair of tickets to the show.

The post Video of the day (plus a giveaway!): John Grant – GMF Ft. Sinead O’Connor appeared first on Oregon Music News.

Here’s the press release:

KEVIN A. LEFOHN TO DEPART FROM THE PORTLAND YOUTH PHILHARMONIC

PORTLAND, OR — (June 17, 2013) The Board of Directors of the Portland Youth Philharmonic (PYP) has announced today that Executive Director Kevin A. Lefohn will be departing from PYP.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, President Joseph G. Rakoski said, “The board thanks Kevin for his service these last three years, and we wish him all the best.  His passion for PYP has helped us renew and continue PYP’s long commitment to musical excellence for our students and we appreciate his service as part of our leadership team.”

Rakoski also noted that David Hattner’s contract as musical director has him serving through the 2016 season, bringing PYP leadership continuity on the artistic side.  Hattner commented: “Kevin brought a wealth of musical and administrative experience to his work at PYP. Our program was able to make great strides during his years of leadership. I will always be grateful for his efforts on PYP’s behalf and wish him well in his next endeavor.”

The Board acknowledges Mr. Lefohn’s hard work, dedication, and outstanding accomplishments in service to PYP during his tenure, including enhancing PYP’s presence in the community through innovative partnerships and high profile events such as PYP’s TEDx Portland debut in 2012, two highly successful New Year’s Eve performances with Pink Martini in 2012 and PYP’s inaugural Painted Violin Gala in 2013. Education, performance and advocacy programs served 39,500 community members through training, performance and outreach offerings this past season, including 10,000 children attending PYP’s Free Children’s Concerts.

Lefohn said, “I am extremely proud of the accomplishments of this organization, its musicians, staff, board and the community which is so passionately supportive of its work.  My time with PYP has been incredibly rewarding, both professionally and personally. PYP changes lives – not only those whose talents it nurtures, but also those whose hearts their talents touch. As a musician, educator, arts leader and relentless advocate for the arts, I am grateful to everyone who is part of what makes this organization and the community it serves so very special.”

PYP’s Board of Directors has appointed a search committee and has begun the process of a search for Mr. Lefohn’s successor, with an interim plan in place during the transition.  Mr. Lefohn will continue to be involved with PYP during this time.

The post Executive director of Portland Youth Philharmonic resigns appeared first on Oregon Music News.

First of all, GEAR Con means “The Gaslight Explorers, Adventurers, & Romantics Convention.” If you know what that means you are directed to the Doubletree Hotel, 1000 NE Multnomah Street in Portland on the weekend of Friday, July 5 through Sunday, July 7 for, “three days of art salons, makers’ workshops, masquerade balls, tabletop gaming, a Victorian martial arts symposium, a Steampunk fashion show, vendors, and uniquely thrilling retro-futurist entertainment every night.

“This year sees the arrival of internationally-famous Steampunk supergroup, Abney Park. More music provided by the nation’s only live electro-swing band, Good Company, Poplock Holmes (Victorian hip-hop – “chap-hop”), renowned chanteuse Veronique Chevalier and Portland’s own Professor Gall.”

Is anyone surprised that Portland is a hotbed of Steampunkerie?

Tickets are $55 – Weekend pass pre-registration, $25 – Friday only wristband, $30 – Saturday only wristband, $25 – Sunday only wristband. A weekend pass grants access to all GEAR Con 2012 functions. Some panels or workshops may require an additional nominal fee to compensate the presenter for the cost of materials.

 Here’s the schedule

Friday, July 5 – The Prestigious Illusionists

Be astounded by The Prestigious Illusionists, a showcase of Steampunk stage magicians hosted by the Historical Conjurer, Professor DR Schreiber; music by Veronique Chevalier and DJ Xander Gerrymander.

Saturday, July 6 – Adventurers’ Ball

The legendary Abney Park headlines our Adventurers’ Ball, with guests Good Company, Poplock Holmes and DJ Dirty Mollie!

Sunday, July 7

GEAR Con’s weekend-long Victorian Martial Arts Symposium (orchestrated by Academia Duellatoria) culminates in a grand exhibition by visiting bartitsu, pugilism, & swordplay luminaries. Music by Professor Gall.

 The performers

ABNEY PARK
Abney Park comes from an era that never was, but one that we wish had been. An era where airships waged war in the skies, and corsets and cummerbunds were proper adventuring attire. They’ve picked up their bad musical habits, scoundrelous musicians, and anachronistically hybridized instruments from dozens of locations and eras that they have visited in their travels and thrown them into one riotous dervish of a performance. Expect clockwork guitars, belly dancers, flintlock bassists, Middle Eastern percussion, violent violin, and Tesla powered keyboards blazing in a post- apocalyptic, swashbuckling, Steampunk musical mayhem.

Watch them do “Steampunk Revolution”

Click here to view the embedded video.

GOOD COMPANY
As the US’s one and only Electro Swing Band. Pounding dance beats are mixed with gypsy jazz guitar riffs, samples from the past turned on their head along with a live horn section blowing down the house! Take it easy ’cause we’ve got you covered.

Watch them do “Chinatown Strut“

Click here to view the embedded video.

PROFESSOR GALL

It gets a little complicated and paradoxical with Professor Gall, even starting with the name. It’s the man, it’s the band, it’s maybe even an idea and a style unto itself. Solid jazz and rock players who concoct a studied, experienced, audacious New Orleans vibe – but one that’s been twisted into a nightmarish fever dream (DT’s perhaps) – playing songs with lyrics forged by psychology and philosophy.

PROFESSOR DR SCHREIBER
As a professor of natural philosophy, presenter of experimental conjuring, and exhibitor of legerdemain, Professor DR Schreiber evokes the spirit of early magical performances. His audiences experience illusion and mystery in the same way that 18th, 19th, and early 20th century aristocrats, nobles and elite would have seen it, in their home, mansion, or estate with a private demonstration. Professor DR Schreiber brings parlor magic back into parlors.

VERONIQUE CHEVALIER
She’s an unparalleled Parodist; a Steampunk-lish Chanteuse, and Spooky Polkanista, who has been described as a twisted incarnation of Edith Piaf from an alternate reality – the one in which her parents are Jim Morrison, and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, and her godparents are Lucille Ball and Weird Al.

Watch her do “Uncle Pierre” (Bouncy Bouncy)

Click here to view the embedded video.

POPLOCK HOLMES (poplockholmes.blogspot.com)
Poplock Holmes – The perfect mood music for hunting yeti, taming wild beats, and drinking tea, Poplock Holmes is fun for the whole Steampunk family with his quirky, Victorian-flavored hip-hop known as Chap Hop.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The post GEAR Con, Portland’s third annual Steampunk festival coming July 5-7 appeared first on Oregon Music News.

The post This week’s new releases appeared first on Oregon Music News.

Andrew Oliver

It has been the talk among Jazz musicians, for quite a while that Andrew Oliver, a pillar of Portland’s musical community is leaving town and moving to London, England. Not London, Connecticut or London, Ontario but all the way east. We can make jokes about Oliver relocating there so he can live in the same climate as the city of his birth, but his leaving is a serious matter.

In Portland’s Jazz world, his leaving will cause as hole a big as the one left in Portland’s Classical world when Murry Sidlin left the Oregon Symphony.

The Kora Band, one of the gazillion Oliver bands.

Back around 2008 or so, I wrote this about the emerging scene Oliver was such an important part of:

There is a new generation of jazz musicians in Portland who, in the past year have taken over the scene. They’re everywhere! Almost overnight this multi-racial, multi-gender pack of 21-35 year olds have transformed jazz around here.

In a Q&A I did on Oliver for the Oregonian in 2007 or so, I asked him about that emerging group of musicians:

Q: You young cats have really burst on the scene, haven’t you?

Oliver: It’s been really quick. I would come back from college in the summers and I started to notice what was happening but since I’ve been back I’ve feel it’s

The legendary sextet, every member a leader.

gone really fast. This is a good time. I don’t’ know if there’s a mission statement. People are less afraid to break genre boundaries.

He is known for being in a gazillion bands, as a matter of fact I did a video interview with him for OMN entitled “Andrew Oliver: Watch him tell you about the gazillion bands he’s in.” He sat in front of the piano at his house in NE Portland for that.

He sat in the same room this time. We were going to do it in front of his piano but there was a power failure in NE Portland and the light was bad. The feeling this time though, was totally different…he’s packing up and leaving town.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s the Portland Jazz Ccmposers Ensemble’s PJCE Records monthly release #6, Parallax,

by Andrew Oliver / Ben Dietschi Quartet. It came out the day we did the interview, on Friday.

The musicians: Ben Dietschi – saxophones, Andrew Oliver – piano, Bill Athens – bass, Stephen Pancerev – drums, Dan Duval – guitar.

Listen to “Invisible Beats”

The concert he was talking about happens Thursday, June 20 at the Mission Theater as part of the PDX Jazz @ the Mission series. It’s a Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble concert. They’ll be performing original compositions, including the one Oliver explained in detail in the interview, selected works of Dave Douglas, plus new works by trumpeter Thomas Barber,

The ensemble:
Andrew Oliver – piano, Tom Barber – trumpet, James M. Gregg – trumpet, Lee Elderton – saxophone, Gary Harris – saxophone, Mieke Bruggeman-Smith – saxophone, Gus Slayton – saxophone, Matt Hettwer – trombone, Bill Stalnaker – french horn, Dan Duval – guitar, Bill Athens – bass, Ken Ollis – drums

The post Video: Andrew Oliver has a few more surprises for us before he moves to London appeared first on Oregon Music News.

June 17, 2013

FUNDING CUTS FROM THE CITY OF PORTLAND AND

THE REGIONAL ARTS AND CULTURE COUNCIL

FORCE CANCELLATION OF WATERFRONT CONCERT

(PORTLAND, Ore.) –  Recent budget cuts mandated by the City and made by the Regional Arts and Culture Council have resulted in the cancellation of this year’s Waterfront Concert.

Realizing the importance of this concert to the thousands of Portland residents of all ages, ethnicities, and neighborhoods who attend each year, the Symphony made a last ditch effort to find new sponsors for the popular end-of-summer event.  When none could be found, the concert—like so many other worthwhile endeavors whose funding disappeared during these challenging fiscal times—was no longer possible.

It is anticipated that this will be a one-year hiatus for the popular event.

“Facing an unprecedented $21.5 million shortfall in the budget, the city had to make some pretty tough decisions this year,” Mayor Charlie Hales said. “Some popular and terrific programs couldn’t be funded this time, and the Waterfront Concert is a good example. But the concert will be in my proposed budget for 2014-15, if the city’s revenue picture improves – and we’re expecting that it will.”

The post City of Portland cancels annual Waterfront Concert with Oregon Symphony appeared first on Oregon Music News.