This morning, Bend’s community radio station, KPOV, debuted The Point, a new daily program covering local news, arts/entertainment, recreation, politics and more. The 30-minute show airs at 9 a.m. every morning, and you can read more about it in this mid-April column by my colleague Lily Raff.
I’m bringing it up because yours truly will be providing The Point’s weekly segment on the live-music scene in Central Oregon, which we’re calling Radio Frequency. Every Thursday, shortly after 9 a.m., I’ll join the show’s hosts to talk about what’s happening locally, music-wise, over the coming week, and where you can read lots more about it all: GO! Magazine in The Bulletin, of course.
So tune in tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. and hear me try to figure out what I’m doing on the fly. KPOV is at 88.9 FM on your radio dial, and also streaming at the station’s website.
I’m sure Poor Moon’s Christian Wargo is already tired of talking about his life and work in Fleet Foxes, and I’m not terribly interested in letting the stature of the Seattle-based indie-folk giants overshadow Wargo’s new band, either.
But I have to say, it was pretty tough to chat with him last week and not talk about his “other” band. I mean, Fleet Foxes is arguably my favorite band of the past five years. Fortunately, Wargo is a fine songwriter in his own right, and the Poor Moon songs we’ve heard so far point to a bright future for his new venture.
That venture continues this weekend when Poor Moon kicks off Les Schwab Amphitheater’s free Summer Sunday Concerts series. When we spoke, Wargo and I chatted about life on the road with a band that’s doing things a bit more DIY than, say, Fleet Foxes have been in recent years.
“It has been a real breath of fresh air for us,” he said. “Being in the van together with your bros, you get to see where you’re going, as opposed to a bus tour, where you go to bed and then you wake up in the next backstage area and it can be a little monotonous.
“You know, being in charge of getting yourself to the show and finding hotels, it’s been fun,” he continued. “We really have enjoyed it a lot. I couldn’t actually see myself getting into a bus right now.”
Besides being closer to band mates, touring on a smaller scale also provides more opportunities to meet and make connections with fans, he said.
“In the smaller clubs, (there’s) just an energy that you can’t quite get when you’re playing theaters,” Wargo said. “It’s all around just been great. I love it.”
Elsewhere in this week’s music section: Bad boy glam-rapper Mickey Avalon is back in Bend, the Pickin’ & Paddlin’ series begins with The Pitchfork Revolution, a trio of Oregon songwriters will play The Horned Hand, Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks visit Kimberly, a roundup of the opportunities to see and hear Irish/Celtic music this week, the psych-rock sounds of Rubedo, and a Last Band Standing update. Plus, a bunch of good local bands are playing the Bend Pride celebration on Saturday. All are welcome!
Continuing the Great Frequency Radio Blitz of Late 2011, I’ll join Rick Miller, TK and Dennis Plant on KPOV’s Center Stage program today from 2 to 4 p.m. to talk about the local music scene in 2011 and play some songs.
If you’re in Central Oregon, try tuning in at 88.9 FM on your radio dial. If that doesn’t work (or you live elsewhere), stream it live at KPOV’s website!
Remember when I encouraged you to support local community radio station KPOV‘s effort to increase its signal strength? Well, it worked! Today’s Bulletin has a short bit on it:
Beginning today, High Desert Community Radio, KPOV FM, will have a new position at the left of the dial at 88.9 FM.
KPOV got off the ground in 2005 as a low-power station broadcasting at two watts from a tower on Awbrey Butte, its range limited mostly to Bend.
In 2007, the volunteer-run station began working a campaign to go full-power in order to reach more listeners, according to a press release announcing the move.
KPOV will now be broadcasting at 800 watts, allowing it to reach not only all corners of Bend, but also Sisters and Redmond.
According to the release, the station has raised $92,000 via donations, grants, event ticket sales and loans over the past three years, enabling it to pay for equipment and other full-power related costs.
Contact: www.kpov.org or 541-322-0863.
If you’ve got your car radio set to KPOV’s old frequency, 106.7 FM, make sure you change it today … if it hasn’t gone away yet, it will soon!
This week in the music section, we bring you sort of a hodgepodge of stuff, ranging from benefit shows to CD-release events to concert series kick-offs to brand new venues opening. So here’s a list:
KPOV’s raising funds with its second Beatles Singalong, and …
Friends of Megan Cecil are raising funds for her battle against cancer, and …
The High & Dry Bluegrass Festival’s raising funds by blending barbershop and bluegrass.
Also!
Local pop-punkers Tuck and Roll celebrate their new EP at Madhappy Lounge on Saturday, and …
Electro-soul-hop duo Dinner at the Thompson’s will also visit Madhappy on Thursday, and …
Slow Trucks nods to ’90s indie rock at Madhappy on Monday.
Meanwhile!
The Moon Mountain Ramblers kick off the summer concert series at Angeline’s Bakery in Sisters, and …
The Sweet Harlots kick off the Pickin’ and Paddlin’ series along the Deschutes River in Bend, and …
Brent Alan and friends kick off a new venue, Sugar Mountain Amphitheater near Terrebonne.
And then there are the things that don’t fit neatly into one of the groups above!
Deschutes Brewery is celebrating 23 years in business with a party in their parking lot, and …
Oh Sugoi! and Third Seven will fill McMenamins with experimental sounds, and …
I saw Brett Dennen and Dawes at the Athletic Club of Bend and then wrote what I thought about it.
One of Bend’s favorite dudes, G. Love aka Garrett Dutton, is bringing the Special Sauce back to town on Thursday. This time, he’s supporting a more rustic, acoustic album called “Fixin’ to Die” that he made with Seth and Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers. I chatted with the man about his new musical direction.
“We thought of those last three records as a triumvirate,” he said. “With the economy and the state of the record business and everything like that — it being harder and harder to sell records — it was just like, you know what, we gotta do something really different. So we decided we were gonna go back to my roots as a coffee-shop singer and a Delta bluesman and really … go all the way with that.”
Enter the Avetts, a couple of North Carolina boys whose new-school old-time string band is at the forefront of the current roots-music revival. Once the G. Love camp decided on the direction of the new record, they set their sights on the ideal producers.
“They do things in such an honest way,” Dutton said. “We felt like (we should) go back to making records how I used to make ’em: real stripped down, live performances, no frills. Just good, old-fashioned, honest music.”
Sounds like Dutton was super-inspired by working with the Avetts. Click here to read the whole story.
In Feedback this week, I tell you how you can support your local music scene by supporting Bend’s local, independent radio station, KPOV and it’s local, independent record store, Ranch Records. And then I tell you why you should.
You see, places like KPOV and Ranch are vital to the uniqueness of a town like Bend. With them in place, interesting, different and/or obscure music can infiltrate our town and our ears, thanks to DJs and record store clerks who are as passionate about good music as you are.
Each is as important a piece of the local music scene as a punk club, a jam session or an exciting new rock band. And without them, our funky little town would be a lot less funky, and a lot more boring.
Funky is good. Boring is bad. The existence of KPOV and Ranch are good things, and their existence depends on your support.
I hope you’ll go read the whole thing by clicking here.
Elsewhere in this week’s music section: the wonderful Gregory Alan Isakov plays the PoetHouse, The Swingle Singers visit the Tower Theatre, Andre Nickatina returns to the Domino Room, Sapient’s back at MadHappy Lounge, Paleface comes to McMenamins and Silver Moon hosts Tone Red tonight and Boxcar Stringband Saturday. Solid!
A quick note: I’ll be joining Rick Miller on KPOV’s Center Stage show today from 2-4 p.m. to talk about the Central Oregon music scene in 2010 and The Bulletin’s Near/Far downloads project. We will, of course, play a bunch of tunes by local artists.
Take your mind off those ominous skies to the west by reading a round-up of locally flavored music news that should take some of the sting out of the next few months:
–The fine folks at KPOV would like you to know that you can now buy tickets to see banjo genius Bela Fleck & the Flecktones at Mountain View High School on Dec. 8. They’re available at KPOV’s website. After Fleck’s Christmas show at the Tower a few years ago, I talked to several people who said it was amazing. So yeah, go make sure you have a seat.
–The Steep Canyon Rangers are one of the finest young bluegrass bands in the country, though lots of folks best know them as the backing band for famous comedian and bluegrass dabbler Steve Martin. Regardless, the Rangers are coming back to Central Oregon to play Sisters Folk Festival’s Winter Concert Series. While we’re at it, here’s the whole series lineup:
All shows start at 7 p.m. in the Sisters High School auditorium. Tickets are available here.
–Bend-based singer-songwriter Sara Jackson-Holman just released three Christmas songs — “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “Carol of the Bells” and “Angels We Have Heard On High” — and has made them available for download. For $1. What a bargain! Plus, proceeds go to charity. I don’t know which charity, but I trust Sara, and so should you.
You can stream two of them and/or download all three at Jackson-Holman’s Bandcamp site.
If you’re like me and can’t spend all day at the Bend Roots Revival (find our coverage here), you can stream a lot of it thanks to Bend’s community radio station, KPOV (which is also a major sponsor of the event).
One of the world’s best and best-known banjo players, Bela Fleck, will return (with his Flecktones) to Bend Dec. 8 to play a holiday concert at Mountain View High School.
The show will benefit Bend’s community radio station, KPOV, which is looking for individuals and organizations in the community to sponsor the event. If you’re interested in more information on sponsorship opportunities, contact jill@kpov.org or 541-322-0863.
Fleck and the Flecktones are masters of modern improvisation, fusing bluegrass, jazz and other styles into their singular sound. In Bend, they’ll have the Tuvan throat-singing group Alash open the show.
Premium tickets for the 7 p.m. show will cost $40 in advance for KPOV members, $42 in advance for non-members, and $47 at the door. Value tickets are $33 for members, $35 for non-members and $40 at the door. Tickets will be available through KPOV, but not for a while, so chill out, banjo nuts.
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