Portable Shrines

NOISE the art and music event at the Black Lodge last week was truly amazing. Thanks to all who came out, contributed and organized.

Here are a couple of shots of the Portable Shrines/Caravan Age audio-video installation piece “Forest Television”.

Caravan Age/Portable Shrines “Luminous Forest” installation at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center last Friday was a magical success. Thanks to Kelli’s Starlight Wishes, The Midget and Lou-Lou for providing an excellent soundtrack. Visit Caravan Age for more photos and see below for more info on the event…

SPACE d’OM is a meditation environment, a utopian lounge, and constantly evolving multimedia crash pad nestled both inside and outside of a 17′ geodesic dome. We’ve been installing it all week for ONN/OF Festival in Ballard.  You can read more about it here and here, or you can just come experience it for yourself this Saturday and Sunday at the Sweater Factory, 1415 NW 52nd.

Bird Dance by Virna Haffer

As most of the Northwest knows Tacoma has been turning itself around of late. Check out the Spaceworks Tacoma installations around the Theater District and take a walk around oldtown to fully grasp this rejuvenation of the artistic community. Then make sure to swing by The Tacoma Art Museum’s stunning exhibit of Virna Haffer’s Photography, Photograms and Woodcuts entitled A Turbulent Lens: The Photographic Art of Virna Haffer to ponder its very long experimental artistic legacy. Born in 1899 and raised in the anarchist community of Home, Washington Haffer began her career as a photographer in the 1920′s, continuing to create a prolific, internationally acclaimed body of work in many varied forms until the early 1970′s.

 If you cannot make it the show (it ends November 6th) the Tacoma Public Library houses an image archive of her work…

In past years, we’ve often lamented not being able to make the trip to Austin Psych Fest. (In 2009, Austin transplant Victoria Reynard even wrote a full review of APF2 for Portable Shrines so we could at least experience it vicariously.)

This year, a small group of us made the trip to Austin to observe first hand how our psychedelic brethren do it up down south.

Photo by Clarita Hinojosa

Austin Psych Fest 4 was held at the Seaholm Power Plant, an old art deco landmark that has been retired from producing actual power since the 1950s. The inside of the space was completely transformed for the occasion, with two stages set up to accomodate the 50-some bands who made the trek to Texas for our psychedelic consideration.  (This year’s lineup was truly amazing…so many bands we were excited to see, all in one place!)  We arrived on Friday afternoon just in time to catch Seattle’s own Night Beats deliver an inspired set of rock and roll with the help of special guest Chris Catalena (of The Tunnels and The Ghost Songs).

The Night Beats at Austin Psych Fest 4. Photo by Emily Pothast.

The next day, we caught Night Beats again, this time giving a performance at the Do512 Lounge, a small performance space that hosted small televised shows for several of the Psych Fest Bands (including The Meek, The Black Ryder and The Diamond Center. It was a great chance to see some of these bands in such an intimate setting. We couldn’t stay for long, however, because the afternoon was full of some of the bands we were most excited to catch: Cloudland Canyon, PONTIAK, White Hills, Lumerians, Young Prisms and The Soft Moon all played the second stage on Saturday, before SPECTRUM took to the mainstage for an epic, slow-building performance.

PONTIAK at Austin Psych Fest 4. Photo by Emily Pothast.

White Hills at Austin Psych Fest 4. Photo by Emily Pothast.

Lumerians at Austin Psych Fest 4. Photo by Emily Pothast.

On Day 3, we investigated some of Austin’s more exciting off-site attractions, including the amazing record store End of an Ear and Switched on Austin, an analog synth specialty store featuring immaculate modulars and vintage Farfisas as far as the eye could see. Again, we didn’t have much time because the afternoon was full of more bands we were dying to see: Denver’s Tjutjuna and Minneapolis’s Daughters of the Sun were standouts on the second stage.  By the time Roky Erickson and festival organizers The Black Angels took to the main stage, their audience was completely saturated by the ear-splitting, soul-vibrating good vibes.

Switched On Music and Electronics, Austin's synth mecca.

Tjutjuna at Austin Psych Fest 4. (In Austin, bands can have beer on stage!) Photo by Emily Pothast.

Austin Psych Fest is a very special event. People were there to hang out and network as much as they were there to listen to (and play) music, and so in many ways, it seems like the fine folks at the Reverberation Appreciation Society have put together a spectacular alternative to SXSW for those most interested in music on the heady end of the spectrum. If I were to issue any criticism at all of this near-perfect event, it would be that the sound on the mainstage was a little thin compared to the second stage, which was like a full-body vibratory chamber. That and maybe the Pacific Northwest felt a tiny bit underrepresented. (Aside from Night Beats, were there any Northwest bands on the bill? Maybe it’s just their proximity to us, but I thought Eternal Tapestry felt conspicuously absent. Purple Rhinestone Eagle, Kinski, AFCGT and [ahem] Midday Veil would have also fit seamlessly into the lineup, and Master Musicians of Bukkake would have warped it, in a good way.)

Dan Brinner from Skully'z Recordz at Austin Psych Fest 4.

But Northwest psych fans may rest assured that our humble Portable Shrines Magic Sound Theatre Vol. I compilation was all over the fest, from the Night Beats’s merch table to the record booth provided by Skully’z Recordz from New Orleans. It will be exciting to see which psychedelic sounds bubble up from the Northwest underground in time for APF5.

For those of you who didn’t make it to Austin this year, we’ve got a couple of delectable local events in store this week featuring APF4 bands: Cloudland Canyon is playing on Monday, May 9 at the Comet (with Midday Veil, Magnog and Brain Fruit) and Daughters of the Sun are playing next Saturday, May 14 at the Josephine (with Ayahuasca Travellers, Magnog, and This Blinding Light). We’ve also been talking to some of the other APF4 bands who are planning to come up in late summer, more details soon.

(Cuz in Seattle, it’s Psych Fest all year loooooong!)

In Austin, they have this weird ball of light in the sky. They call it "The Sun."

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.

Little Claw in the light of day...

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!!