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November 20 in GO! Magazine

Friday, November 20th, 2009

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
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The Underground: Closed for good.

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

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.

November 13 in GO! Magazine

Friday, November 13th, 2009

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.

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

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:

November 6 in GO! Magazine

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Man, it’s windy outside as I write this. Fall is finally, really here. Or maybe that’s winter.

Whatever, the seasons may change, but the local music scene churns on. This weekend’s lineup is highlighted by some Canadian hip-hop, some Irish punk rock, and a benefit for the folks in our own community who need it most.

Hey … if you go out and see some music and snap a few pictures, why don’t you add them the Frequency’s Flickr pool?

-Two years after Flogging Molly packed the Midtown Ballroom, their fellow Irish-punk rockers Dropkick Murphys are visiting the same venue on Sunday. Read Al Barr’s take on the band’s success and what it has meant for their fan base.

-Swollen Members ought to consider just renting a place in Bend, perhaps. They’re back tonight, just a couple months after opening for Kottonmouth Kings at Midtown Ballroom. This time, though, the Canadian rap quartet is touring behind its brand new album, “Armed to the Teeth,” and will headline the Domino Room.

-For the fourth year in a row, a lot of local folk/bluegrass/Americana bands are gathering at Bend’s Community Center for Hoedown for Hunger, where proceeds will benefit the center’s Feed The Hungry program.

-California’s softcore ska dudes the Mad Caddies played at Mountain’s Edge bar in Bend on Sunday. I dug it.

-Elsewhere in town this week, Dana and Susan Robinson play a house concert, Shireen Amini settles into Jackson’s Corner, The Snag will do a free show at a church, and Cloaked Characters and The Bayliens will light up the Bendistillery Martini Bar.

As always, not all those stories will be available to everyone. If you run into a paywall, you’ll need to subscribe to The Bulletin’s online edition or, better yet, pick up a print copy of today’s paper.

Tags: Cloaked Characters, Dropkick Murphys, Hoedown for Hunger, Mad Caddies, Shireen Amini, Swollen Members, The Bayliens, The Snag
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New shows announced (Brandi Carlile, The Lonely H, Son Volt, Erin Cole-Baker and more)

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

There are several concerts coming to the area over the next few months that I haven’t yet mentioned. Here’s a round-up:

-Port Angeles, Wash.’s The Lonely H do what I’d call modern classic rock, and they do it very well. From the long hair and denim to their throwback sound, these dudes are the real deal. They’ll return to Bend on Nov. 13 to play the Black Horse Saloon.

-Reggae legend Eek-A-Mouse will play the Domino Room on Nov. 18, and Northwest blues-rock stalwart Too Slim & The Taildraggers is set for a Nov. 20 show at The Annex.

-Local keyboard kingpin Brad Jones has set a date for his CD-release show: Nov. 21 at The Annex in Bend. Also on the bill is The Mostest, Defekt and Manic.

-The excellent, Portland-based indie-pop band Church will warm up The Annex on Dec. 4, along with locals The Sweet Harlots. I saw Church open for Finn Riggins several weeks back at Silver Moon, and they were terrific.

-The Domino Room will host alt-country combo Son Volt on Dec. 7, and then Sublime tribute act 40 Oz. to Freedom on Dec. 12.

-Local folk singer Erin Cole-Baker is planning her long-awaited CD-release show on Dec. 12. No word yet on where, exactly, so stay tuned for that detail.

-The first date for the Sisters Folk Festival’s Winter Concert Series has popped up, and it’s Alaskan roots-grass band Bearfoot on Feb. 6.

-Here’s the biggest news of this batch, I think: Rising roots-rock star Brandi Carlile — who introduced herself to Bend by opening for Sheryl Crow a year ago and then sold out the Tower Theater in June — will return to the Tower March 17-18 for a two-night engagement.

The promoter bringing Carlile to town, Bret Grier of Random Presents, said today that he has booked back-to-back concerts by one artist only once before in 11 years, and that was Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe at Bend’s Best Bet in 2000. So why Carlile and why now … or rather, March?

“(Her) show (here) on June 10 … sold out extremely fast making it obvious we needed to find her a larger home or do multiple nights,” Grier wrote in an e-mail. “After the show Brandi claimed the Tower Theatre to be her new favorite place to play and suggested we do two nights on the next northwest run.”

Sweet! I missed Carlile last time she was in town, so I’m going to be sure to catch her in the spring.

Anyway, that’s most of what I know about right now. Did I miss anything? Fill me in in the comments.

Tags: 40 Oz. to Freedom, Bearfoot, Brad Jones, Brandi Carlile, Church, Eek-A-Mouse, Erin Cole-Baker, Son Volt, The Lonely H, Too Slim & the Taildraggers
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Fine jazz band tonight in Sisters

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

All you jazz fans out there ought to consider checking out this band BUG tonight in Sisters. (Sorry for the short notice.)

BUG consists of five educators, and you can hear their slick (but not too slick) sound at their Web site. Or, just trust Jody Henderson, the band director at Sisters High School and Sisters Middle School, who says BUG is “the real deal.” Jody’s a jazz fan, a player and a vital cog in the region’s jazz scene, so he knows what he’s talking about.

The band will play at 7:30 tonight in the Sisters High School band room, at 1700 W. McKinney Butte Road. Cover is $5 for students and $10 for adults, and the money will help pay for more artists like this to come to Sisters, where they work with jazz students before playing a concert for the general public. It’s a cool thing that’s worth supporting.

Tags: BUG, jazz
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October 30 in GO! Magazine

Friday, October 30th, 2009

Happy Halloween, kids and grown-up kids!

I’ve got no snappy intro this week, but I do want to know this: What are you dressing up as for Halloween? Let me know in the comments. (I’m quite tempted to shave a corn maze into my hair and go around interrupting peoples’ conversations.)

I’ll tell you what Bend is dressing up as this year: A town with a ton of bands playing at clubs all over the place. Here are five shows I wrote about:

-Person People and The Staxx Brothers tonight at the Domino Room.
-Empty Space Orchestra Saturday at McMenamins Old St. Francis School.
-Warm Gadget and Goodbye Dyna Saturday at Silver Moon Brewing & Taproom.
-Necktie Killer, Tuck & Roll and Danger Death Ray Saturday at Black Horse Saloon.
-Moon Mountain Ramblers Saturday at the Domino Room.

That’s not all that’s happening. Check out The Bulletin’s events calendar to find a long list of festivities, or better yet, pick up a print copy of GO! Magazine, which contains both the calendar and the “Area 97 Clubs” page, which has even more stuff listed.

Of course, not everything that’s happening this weekend is Halloween-related. Here are a couple options where you won’t feel weird if you don’t dress in costume:

-The popular California ska band Mad Caddies are performing on Sunday at Mountain’s Edge bar, which is the new name of the old Timbers South in Bend. (Click here to read about why the Caddies are playing a place that’s quite a bit smaller than the venues they usually play.)

-On Sunday, Christian hitmakers Todd Agnew and Building 429 will put on a concert at the Christian Life Center in Bend.

So obviously, plenty of choices out there. Everyone have fun and be safe.

Tags: Building 429, Empty Space Orchestra, halloween, Mad Caddies, Moon Mountain Ramblers, Necktie Killer, Person People, Todd Agnew, Warm Gadget
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Mad Caddies: Coming Sunday to a small venue in Bend

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

I’ll have more on this in tomorrow’s GO! Magazine, but I want to highlight Sunday’s Mad Caddies show in Bend for two reasons: 1) Because I haven’t seen a ton of promotion for it, and 2) Because I’m somewhat fascinated by this booking.

Why? Because the Mad Caddies have for years played considerably larger venues than the Mountain’s Edge bar, where they’ll perform this weekend. (Mountain’s Edge is the new name of the old Timbers bar near Goodwill in south Bend.) A little over two years ago, in fact, the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based ska-pop band played Bend’s Domino Room, which holds nearly twice as many people as Mountain’s Edge.

This is, of course, why the Caddies’ show here is so intriguing. It’s always cool to see a bigger band in a smaller spot. To find out how the show came together, I got in touch with Ben Mann, who fronts local ska band Necktie Killer, which partnered with Mountain’s Edge to get the Caddies. I asked Mann a few questions, he answered, and I’ve edited them a bit. Here they are:

(more…)

Tags: Mad Caddies, Necktie Killer
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The Heavy at Silver Moon: canceled

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Word just came in from Cassie Moore, who books music for Silver Moon Brewing & Taproom and independently as LOUDgirl Productions, that Wednesday night’s show at Silver Moon Brewing & Taproom by buzzworthy U.K. soul-rockers The Heavy has been canceled.

The band requires a certain level of sound equipment and refused to scale it back to “more appropriately” fit the size of the venue, Moore said. “I agreed to provide what they were asking for as long was we could adjust the sound budget accordingly, and they refused,” she said.

Major bummer.

Folks who bought advance tickets can get a full refund at Silver Moon.

Tags: Silver Moon, The Heavy
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