Frequency blog: Music news and reviews from Bend and Central Oregon, by Ben Salmon | The Bulletin

Sounds from Central Oregon and beyond

November 20 in GO! Magazine

Friday, November 20th, 2009, 10:33 am by Ben Salmon

Happy Friday-before-Thanksgiving, folks! Do you know what the Friday before Thanksgiving means? It means next week is Thanksgiving, which means good food, days off work, and sports on television. (This is as good a time as any, I suppose, to inform you good people that I’m a college basketball — specifically University of Kentucky basketball — fanatic, and that fanaticism may surface here on the blog from time to time over the next six months.)

Anyway, I love the holidays. I love the parties and the decorations and the merriment and the quality time with loved ones and all the other stuff that comes with the holidays. And I love Christmas music, too. And none of the music detailed below is Christmas music, but that’s coming soon enough.

In the meantime, here’s what’s happening this week on Central Oregon’s live-music scene:

-Veteran local musician and multi-instrumentalist Brad Jones is best-known ’round these parts for his roles in Defekt-N-Jones, The Mostest and, if you’re an old-timer, Floor-Ride. Now, he’s unleashing his solo album “No Strings” on the world with a CD-release show on Saturday night.

-Two opportunities to hit the Tower Theatre, take in some good music, and contribute to a good cause: Tonight is the Homegrown Music Showcase, benefiting the Ronald McDonald House, and Saturday night is 3 Leg Torso, with proceeds going to the Cascade Community School of Music.

-Looking for something to do the night before Thanksgiving? How about GWAR! Because nothing goes with turkey and stuffing like mock murders and fake blood. (I, for one, am thankful that this clip exists.)

-The Ascetic Junkies are a good band from Portland that mixes bluegrass and pop. They’ll be at Silver Moon Brewing on Saturday.

-Roots-rock round-up: Freak Mountain Ramblers, Too Slim & the Taildraggers, Moon Mountain Ramblers.

-Locals round-up: Andy Armer, Necktie Killer, Klever Kill, Problem Stick, Little White Lyins, Leif James & the Struggle, and Amsterdam’s birthday bash.

All those links should lead to stories for subscribers to The Bulletin’s Web site. If they don’t, you’ll either need to subscribe or grab a printed copy of today’s Bulletin.

Tags: 3 Leg Torso, Andy Armer, Brad Jones, Cascade Community School of Music, Freak Mountain Ramblers, GWAR, Homegrown Music Showcase, Leif James, Little White Lyins, Moon Mountain Ramblers, Problem Stick, The Ascetic Junkies, Too Slim & the Taildraggers
Posted in news | No Comments »

What’s the weirdest thing in this video?

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009, 5:44 pm by Ben Salmon

Below is the incredibly bizarre new video from Charlotte Gainsbourg for her duet with Beck, called “Heaven Can Wait.” Simple question: What do you think is the weirdest thing in this video? The possibilities are endless.

I’ll save my nominations for after y’all have had some time to comment.

Tags: Beck, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Posted in oddities | 1 Comment »

The Underground: Closed for good.

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009, 3:28 pm by Ben Salmon

Just four months after opening with a lot of potential and promises, The Underground has permanently closed, according to co-owner Diana Larson.

The club — located in the old Club 97 space, under the Spotted Mule on Third Street — had a few concerts on its schedule, including a reggae show and a country show this weekend, plus a Sublime tribute band (not 40 Oz. to Freedom) later this month, but those shows are not happening at The Underground. If they move to another venue, I’ll let you know.

A note posted to the club’s MySpace said The Underground’s management team is cleaning out the space. In an e-mail, Larson said the team is “very sad and discouraged” about the closure.

“We so wanted to have a great venue for live music here, and we finally got minors allowed in, but the people just weren’t ready to support it I guess,” she wrote. “It was sad Friday night with a live country band and we only had 60 people. Saturday with heavy metal/rock we didn’t even have that many. I don’t know what happened or why, but it is what it is.”

Indeed, it is. Now let’s balance the bad news with some good news for the local music scene: Two former employees of the venerable west-side bar Players are now booking music at other Bend bars. Buck Bales, whose departure from Players caused a kerfuffle in June, has just begun bringing music to Mountain’s Edge, formerly Timbers South on Bend’s south end. And Becki Spor, who worked with Bales at Players, started booking music at The Black Horse Saloon in northeast Bend a few months ago, and has already brought in a few fine shows, including last weekend’s visit from The Lonely H.

Bad news, good news; sometimes it seems Bend’s music scene is like that episode of “Seinfeld” where Jerry always comes out even. Whenever one place or one person in town shuts off the live-music pipeline, it seems another is there to take its place.

Tags: Black Horse Saloon, Mountain's Edge, Players, The Underground
Posted in news, venues | 3 Comments »

Photos of KISS last night in Seattle; they’re in Portland tomorrow

Monday, November 16th, 2009, 4:59 pm by Ben Salmon

I can’t stand KISS, really. Or rather, I can’t stand what they’ve become.

So I’m not heading up to Portland to see Paul, Gene and those other two guys at the Rose Garden in Portland on Tuesday night. If you are, though, send me an e-mail; I’d love to hear about it, and maybe we can post your review here on Frequency.

And whether you’re going or you’re not — or if you’re undecided — check out these terrific photos of the KISS show last night in Seattle, courtesy of Kristen Blush and The Stranger’s Line Out blog.

Tags: KISS
Posted in out of town, supernovas | 4 Comments »

Huh. Maybe Kanye West was right …

Monday, November 16th, 2009, 11:12 am by Ben Salmon

… maybe Gaga is Madonna.

This video is fascinating. Just try to take your eyes off of it.

Tags: Kanye West, Lady Gaga
Posted in buzz, supernovas | 1 Comment »

November 13 in GO! Magazine

Friday, November 13th, 2009, 9:09 am by Ben Salmon

Sore throat and an achy body here, folks, so I’m going to keep this short. And if you don’t hear from me over the weekend, now you know why.

-Tiempo Libre is bringing an authentic Latin-jazz dance party to the Tower Theatre. These guys are awfully good at what they do. Want to win “Bach In Havana,” their new CD? Click here and enter the contest. Deadline is noon today.

-Irish punks the Dropkick Murphys sold out the Midtown Ballroom on Sunday night. I was there, and this is my review. To see lots of great pictures of the night, click here.

-Folk faves Keith Greeninger and Dayan Kai will celebrate the release of their new album with a show Saturday night in Sisters.

-Classic rock will never die! Especially if bands like The Lonely H keep reviving it.

-Reggae great Eek-A-Mouse will return to the Domino Room in Bend next week.

-Check out the seriously diverse lineup of offerings at Silver Moon Brewing over the next seven days. Seriously, they have a lot of good bands coming through there this week! Kudos to Silver Moon and their talent buyer Cassie Moore.

That’s it, folks. To read it all, pick up a copy of the newspaper. But first, send your positive vibes my way.

Tags: Dayan Kai, Dropkick Murphys, Eek-A-Mouse, Keith Greeninger, Silver Moon, The Lonely H, Tiempo Libre
Posted in news | 1 Comment »

Win Tiempo Libre’s “Bach in Havana” CD!

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009, 1:13 pm by Ben Salmon

Alright, folks, it’s time for Frequency’s first-ever contest! Very exciting.

Here’s the deal: The super-energetic Latin-jazz band Tiempo Libre — born in Cuba, now based in Miami, so you know it’s authentic — is performing at the Tower Theatre in Bend on Tuesday. By all accounts, this is going to be a heck of a fun show, especially if you’re the dancin’ type.

The band also has a new CD out called “Bach in Havana,” which pairs Tiempo Libre’s timba style with the transcendent brilliance of some dude named Johann Sebastian Bach. Sounds a little weird, I know, but it works quite well. You can listen to the whole album at the band’s Web site to hear for yourself. (Just click “Launch player.”)

OR!

I have a sealed copy of Tiempo Libre’s “Bach in Havana” to give away, and I’m going to give it to one of you guys. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and tell me why you’d like to hear the thing. Your deadline is noon on Friday — that’s only 48 hours from right now — and I’ll pick a winner that afternoon. Be sure to leave an e-mail address that you actually check so we can figure out how to get your CD to you.

Tickets to Tuesday’s Tiempo Libre show are available through the Tower, and I’ll have an article on the band in Friday’s GO! Magazine.

Tags: Tiempo Libre
Posted in contest | 8 Comments »

Local music news: vote for The Tree Dwellers, new songs from We Are Brontosaurus, Chicks with Picks, and El Dante is no more

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009, 10:03 am by Ben Salmon

Odds and ends from your local music scene:

-Man, I blew it on this one. For the past several days, Bend’s The Tree Dwellers have been competing for votes in a national battle of the bands happening at something called garagebandplayoff.com. Their voting window closes tomorrow. So go here and vote for them. Vote for them a bunch; it’s not against the rules.

More than 100 bands entered this thing, according to Dwellers keyboardist Forrest Grenfell, and The Tree Dwellers were selected as one of the top 24. If you go vote for them enough, they’ll move on to the top 8. The champ will be crowned on Dec. 18.

-Youthful indie rockers We Are Brontosaurus has posted three new live recordings on its MySpace profile. You should go check out “Nausea,” “Post Modern Post” and “Mr. Man,” because these guys are getting better fast.

-In the non-teenagers category of this post, I’m sad to report that local funk-rock-jam band El Dante has split up. I asked guitarist Gabe Johnson for a reason and got the long version, which I tremendously appreciate, but I’m not going to go into here. Instead, the short version: Different band members wanted to play different styles of music, and that caused a rift in the group. Some other stuff went down, too, but yeah, that’s pretty much the main thing. It happens. A lot.

Word on the street is a couple bands may be rising from El Dante’s ashes, but mum’s the word on that for now. I’ll let you know what’s up as soon as I hear something official.

-Silver Moon Brewing & Taproom will host a benefit for the local women’s shelter Saving Grace on Nov. 27, and the lineup will feature four local, lady-led bands. Very cool, right? I think so. Anyway, here’s the flyer:

Tags: El Dante, Silver Moon, The Tree Dwellers, We Are Brontosaurus
Posted in locals, news | No Comments »

Photos: Dropkick Murphys at Midtown Ballroom in Bend

Monday, November 9th, 2009, 12:28 pm by Ben Salmon

Bulletin photographer Andy Tullis checked out the Dropkick Murphys concert — the sold-out-on-a-Sunday-night-in-November Dropkick Murphys concert! — at Midtown Ballroom Sunday night and came back with tons of great photos. Here are a few of them. My full review of the show will be in Friday’s GO! Magazine.

P.S. If you or your buddy got up on stage at any point, you definitely want to click through the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Dropkick Murphys
Posted in photo | 2 Comments »

Paste’s top 50 albums of the decade. Discuss.

Friday, November 6th, 2009, 3:18 pm by Ben Salmon

A month ago, a few Frequency frequenters and I picked apart Pitchfork’s list of the best records of the past decade, and commenter Shannon said she was looking forward to Paste magazine’s picks.

So here it is. (Update: After watching a reader click through and scroll through Paste’s five-page feature, I’ve added the list in text-only format to this post and put it after the jump. Click below to read it and my thoughts.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: magazines, Paste
Posted in ramblings | 7 Comments »