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

Suzanne Vega plays at the Tower Theatre on Sunday. I talked to her about her new “Close-Up” project, in which she’s re-recording dozens of her songs. Here’s an excerpt:

Re-recording the songs acoustically was in part an economic decision. But Vega also liked the idea of reinventing them.

“I had no interest in doing a cover version of ‘Luka.’ It was like, ‘No. No thank you,’” she said. “Nor did I want to do a sort of Suzanne Vega-lite version. So I thought, ‘Let’s just do stark recordings of the absolute minimum.’”

Vega’s an interesting subject. You should read the whole thing here.

In Feedback, I launch my campaign to get reunited indie-rock kings Pavement to the Les Schwab Amphitheater in Bend.

Of course there are people out there who are stoked to hear the Steve Miller Band is coming to Bend. But those people aren’t in my Internet-o-sphere. In there, the team behind the Schwab needs a pick-me-up. They need a booking that’ll get the Twitterati buzzing. They need to reel in a big, cred-building life raft with plenty of room for those who’ve felt neglected for the past year and a half.

They need Pavement.

and…

It’s unlikely, I’m sure. But I’m compelled to put the idea out there and see if we can’t get a snowball rolling on this thing. I’ve had a few dozen people tell me, both personally and via cyber-waves, that they’d love, love, love to see Pavement in Bend. So let’s put our signatures where our mouths are: I’m going to set up a blog post on Frequency like a petition to get Pavement in our town, and all you have to do is go there and leave a comment showing your support for the idea. Better yet, pledge to buy tickets.

If you pass it around to your friends — friends in Bend, Redmond, Sisters, Eugene, Portland, Boise, and so on — and get them to sign it, who knows what might happen?

So yeah, go show your support right here. And go read my whole manifesto here.

Finally, local boys A.M. Interstate have completed their new album “Love Your Sniper.” They’ll play much of it Saturday night at Silver Moon. Here’s a bit about it:

Although it’s not out yet, the brothers are shopping the album around to record labels, looking for a deal. But a quick trip through an advance copy finds the Ericksons moving further from the cosmic Americana sound of their past work and more toward a psych-roots-rawk feel, like The Beatles jamming with Neil Young in a dive bar where the jukebox plays My Bloody Valentine’s “Loveless” on repeat, eternally. (That would be a sweet bar.)

“Sniper” has a sense of momentum that the meandering “Kimono Dragon” sometimes lacked; two listens in, it sounds like the best work of the band’s catalog so far.

Read the whole thing here.

Also in the music section this week: Baltimore roots-rock band The Bridge, Floater frontman Rob Wynia plays a solo show, and Blackstrap, Trina Hamlin, Tony Smiley and a bunch of locals playing a benefit for CASA. And, as always, you can find more in our complete music calendar.