Portable Shrines

Just got a batch of excellent photos from Andrea Brunson, who documented Escalator Fest 2009 at the Lo-Fi Performance Gallery and the Vera Project. Escalator Fest returns in 2010 on October 22 and 23 at the Lo-Fi Performance Gallery in Seattle, WA.

Lots more photos after the jump.

Read more…

Peaking Lights are on tour but alas I will have to settle for this fascinating film as they are not traveling to my mizrable and goshforsaken burg. Perhaps you are a luckier sort. Check out the whole “Sound Builders” series though it’s pretty nice…

7/27/10 – The Crepe Place, Santa Cruz, CA w/ Pocahaunted + Mi Ami

7/28/10 – Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco, CA, w/ Pocahaunted + Mi Ami+ Late Young

7/29/10 – Muddy Water’s Cafe, Santa Barbara, CA w/ Pocahaunted + Mi Ami

7/30/10 – The Bootleg Theater, LA, w/ Pocahaunted + Mi Ami

8/2/10 – Echo Curio, LA w/Ged Gengras, Sun Araw, Metal Rouge, Robedoor

8/3/10 – Tin Can House, San Diego, CA – w/Metal Rouge

8/4/10 – Tempe, AZ w/Metal Rouge

8/5/10 – Albuquerque, NM w/Metal Rouge

8/6/10 – Denver, CO w/Metal Rouge

8/7/10 – Kansas City, MO w/Metal Rouge

8/8/10 – The Mill, Iowa City, IA w/Metal Rouge

8/9/10 – Minneapolis, MN w/Metal Rouge

8/10/10 – Madison, WI

And now another spirited rant from Mr. John Gillanders, here’s his latest installment of “Extra Dimensional”…

If you were to think of our species as united cosmically as one being, which is something that most of our religions and prominent neuronauts have been telling us since the beginning of what we perceive as time – plotlines begin to emerge that don’t necessarily involve self destruction. In not listening to these viewpoints, we’ve separated ourselves from our own eternal nature and the essence of time. We’re kind of like an idiot savant that can program the shit out of a computer but couldn’t get a date if his life depended on it. Another way of putting it is that we’re becoming increasingly and dangerously unbalanced as an individual; a work-a-holic who’s career success has blinded him to the fact that his personal life is in shambles. This unbalance has produced some hilarious and mind blowingly horrific enchantments, but we need to diversify our science now more than ever. Pleasure rather than violence. Cooperation rather than competition. Self love rather than self hatred. Biology rather than synthetics. DMT rather than prozac. Read more…

This month we are excited to feature Moon Duo- a new project from Ripley of the Wooden Shjips.

The fine folks at Arthur recently posted a killer tune by Moon Duo- Check it.

Tonight Saturday 10/16 the imminent Kurt Vile returns to Seattle (this time with his band the Violators) along w/ Eat Skull, the Whines and Charles Leo Gebhardt IV. At the High Dive in Fremont…

Coming November 1st- A Portable Shrines Dia de los Muertos show w/ Blues Control, Little Claw and Brother Raven at the Funhouse. Blues Control (of Queens, NY) have been gifting the world with unique and  amazing jams on reputable labels such as Holy Mountain, SiltBreeze and Sub Pop for some time now but I believe this rare appearance in the NW is their first journey to these parts. Don’t miss it, cousins.

Little Claw are one of Kim and Thurston’s fave bands (he just put out there 2nd album on Ecstatic Peace) and they leave a trail of fire in their wake wherever they go. Check out some of their new tunes HERE.

Brother Raven are a local Seattle duo who deserve your undivided attention. Their analog virtuosity will take you on an awesome voyage through the pineapple portal and into interstellar space. Dig up on that shit right HERE.

The Slaves are currently on tour with Cloaks and will be playing ESCALATOR FEST Saturday 9/26 at the Vera Project.

Thanks once again go to Adam Svenson for the interviewing. Take it away Adam-

The Slaves exist at a juncture of the past and the future. This Portland two-piece
conjure up a cough syrup collusion between sweet crooning AM radio vocals and hazy
keyboards and slow time signatures. There is a beauty and darkness in their sound
that reflects their love of 50′s pop and modern noise and Goth musical moves, and a
record of theirs would not be out of place in the 4AD catalogue or placed during
the end credits of a harrowing foreign film. Sit back and let your mind wash down
the twilight river pouring forth from the Slaves.

Who are The Slaves and where do you come from?

The Slaves are Birch Cooper and Barbara Kinzle and we’re both from the Northwest.
I (Birch) grew up in Alaska, until I moved to the “greater Portland area” (AKA
Forest Grove) where Barbara and I went to high school together. After that Barbara
went to Portland and I went to Olympia. I’ve lived in Portland now for about 2
years.

You used to be an improv / noise band before morphing into a more structured
format…is there still a element of improvisation when you record and play live?

Improvisation is an important part of our music. We do have structures to our
songs, but they are really reliant on the energy of the moment, which is the main
thing that I like about improvisation.

Was the progression from a free-form approach to song-based pretty natural?

Yeah, ever since “The Slaves” really came into being, we’ve mixed the two, and
that’s what has come most naturally to us. We really started structuring our music
when we had the idea to try and blend “drone” and “noise” with “50′s rock/pop”.

Do the songs come out of improvisations or is the structure there before recording
them?

Well, we don’t really think of recordings as the ultimate way for a song to exist,
we think of them as being equal to a live song. Our songs come out of
improvisation, and then we develop structures from that, but the songs tend to keep
on changing after we record them.

If someone described your sound using the words “Twin Peaks” and “4AD”, would you
walk away, shaking your head with disgust?

We definitely consider David Lynch an influence. Juliee Cruise and Angelo
Badalamenti, too. I think that this answer is going to bleed into the next
question.

How about “cough syrup” and “Suicide (the band)”?

We love Suicide and we love This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins. I’m not crazy about
the Suicide comparison, though, if only because I feel like the commonalities
between our music are the result of us deciding to mix certain elements that are
also mixed in Suicide, rather than trying to follow in Suicides footsteps. I do
think that it’s pretty honest to say that we are aware of those bands, though, and
we have been affected by them.
Song to the Siren was kind of a gateway for us. We first heard it in “Lost Highway”
and were blown away, enough so that we decided to cover it, and i think that the
song has had a lasting impact on our band. Also, Alan Vegas collaboration with
Pansonic and Bruce Springsteens cover of “Dream Baby Dream” are important ones.
I think a lot of our sound comes from Barbara’s child hood love of new age music,
in combination with all the other stuff. 50′s rock, surf rock (especially Beach
Boys), free noise, composed noise, goth, industrial music, drone music, black
metal, contemporary pop/hip hop, amazing pop, 90′s rap, Neil Young “Trans”.
After getting really into noise music, I got really into pop music. I was very
interested in extreme music, and I think that The Slaves have always strove for
the extreme qualities of pop music. The helplessness and the power…
Actually, I like the “cough syrup” comparison the best. When we play I often try
to imagine that we are moving incredibly fast and incredibly slow at the same time,
in kind of a frozen moment of speed. I’ve never actually tripped on cough syrup
though….

You have a self-released CD out…any new releases coming out soon?

We are just completing our new release called “Grey Angel”! We’re putting it out
ourselves on tape and CDR. We’re really excited about it.. it’s definitely the
best sounding recordings that I’ve ever done.

Would you consider your music psychedelic?

What a question! I think that all music is psychedelic on a basic level. But I
would say that we try to hone in on the deep dark parts of human experience, and
for me that is a very psychedelic space.

Luminaries of the Frisco psych scene known by earth dwellers as the LUMERIANS just sent us a new unreleased track called Burning Mirrors. Check it out HERE. It will burn your MIND! (in a good way). They’re playing one week from now at ESCALATOR Fest -Friday 9/25 at the Lo-Fi Performance Gallery! Check out the site it is newly updated…

With the Fest coming up fast I just wanted to take the opportunity to give a holler out to all the friends and cool folks who have lent us a hand in a million different ways and come out to the shows, making the happenings happen. It’s always a pleasant soo-prize. Hope to see you all next weekend, it’s going to be AMAZING, an event not to be missed… (also thanks to the unimpeachable Arthur Blog for the plug last week)

This wed. 9/9/09 @the Moe Bar (next to Neumo’s)1425 10th Ave Seattle

Crazy record party w/ DJ Mamma Casserole, DJ Darjeeling and DJ Eye. Funky Fuzz and international klassiks new and old. Sound paintings for your ear-holes. We’ll be sampling cuts from some of the upcoming Escalator Fest folks so be sure and join us to spread the good word.
Also I just wanted take the opportunity to say THANKS to all the fine folks who’ve been coming out to all the P.S. events and making all this mess a success of sorts. For the record we’re still just doing this for the love so it’s always a big inspiration when somebody comes up to us to say “hey, right the fuck on” or words to that effect. We may be a little weird but we’re not so bad. Stop by and say HI…

Sat. 9/5  9pm  at the Funhouse 206 5th ave.  Davila 666 (from Puerto Rico!), Mannequin Men (from Chicago), Idle Times,  Backward Masks(last show EVER?)

Then Sunday 9/6 7pm at the Georgetown Morgue(all ages) Davila 666, Mannequin Men, Coconut Coolouts, Sandy City

ALSO* portableshrines DJing at the Moe Bar this wed. 9/9/09!!

Davilamania is sweeping the nation. The sounds of riotous Puerto Rican RocknRoll have been spreading like a brush fire. Don’t miss out! On tour with the Mannequin Men, they’ll be in Seattle sep. 5 at the Funhouse and at the Morgue (5901 airport way s) in Georgetown sep. 6th for an all-ages show!!

VERY LIMITED SUPER SPECIAL ADVANCE TICKET OFFER! Get em while you can people- only 50 2-day VIP(Vastly Illuminated Person) passes available, good for both Lo-Fi and Vera nights at a one low low price. These will only be available until sep. 15th. (must be 21+ for the 2-night passes, sorry…)

The Brotherhood of the Spirit commune, later renamed the Renaissance Community was a Northeastern commume active 1968-1988.  Check out a thorough history of the commune at the U Mass Amherst site and also puruse the photo gallery.

Restore Maximum Freedom Fest IV in Davis was a fabulous time. Wooden Shjips, Eternal Tapestry, Thee Oh Sees, Pregnant, Meth Teeth, the Mayyors, Lucky Dragons and DMPT rocked and everyone danced, ate and drank through the heat. Photos are located here and here…

Way back in May Portable Shrines took a little trip down to San Fransisco, Oakland, Davis and Arcata to check out some bands and do some camping…here are photos from the Wooden Shjips, Eternal Tapestry and New Rock Syndicate show at Thee Parkside. Light show by Sanae!