Wednesday Oct. 19th is going be the last of the Portable Shrines DJ nights at the Living Room. Come down for one final evening of phantasmagorical synesthesia and audio visual incantations. We’ll be having some super special surprise guest DJs. 9pm til close. Find the hidden door…

THANKS to all the fine folks over the past year that have made this such a fun and far out night. Fear not, there will be more trips to be had in the imminent future. The all-seeing DJ One Eye will still be available to spin records at happenings, freak-outs and boogaloo parties across the globe. Just contact info(AT)portableshrines.com

This Saturday April 2nd we celebrate the release  of our super deluxe double LP extravaganza of mind boggling sounds from beyond. An amazing 6 of the 18 bands featured on the album will be performing at the Lo-Fi Performance Gallery 429 Eastlake. I daresay one of the finest lineups we’ve had the pleasure to present.  These are exact times so don’t miss out!

8:15-8:45 Brother Raven
9:00-9:30 Geist & the Sacred Ensemble
9:45-10:15 Midday Veil
10:30-11:10 Prince Rama
11:25-12:05 Eternal Tapestry
12:20-1:00 Kinski

Spinning the finest zonked out gems all night in the lounge will be DJs Valerie”Explorateur”Calano, Dull Knife’s Adam Svenson and Garek Druss and the all-seeing DJ Eye.  Projections by Aubrey Nehring, Darlene Nordyke, David Golightly and Ellie Dicola.

The record wont be in stores til Record Store Day April 16th so come down and score a copy now, along with some other very limited edition treats.

Next up was Portland’s Datura Blues, which seems like an entirely different band every time I see them.  Once they wore cowboy hats and played a set of countryfied jam rock, complete with an adept fiddler.  Another time they riffed on Faust’s Picnic on a Frozen River for some 15 minutes.  Their set at the Comet the other night skirted into jazz fusion territory, with a baritone sax and two drummers.

Midday Veil ended the night, playing a set of mostly new material including a cover of Broadcast’s Pendulum and a number of songs destined for the band’s second studio album.  The general consensus was that MV groove quite a bit harder these days, what with the recent addition of Jayson Kochan (solo project: Airport) on bass guitar to the lineup.  Here’s a video of MV’s debut performance of “Pavamana”…

…plus an audio bootleg of “Shahrazad” from the show.
Midday Veil – Song 2, live at The Comet 03 10 11 by disconnected bootlegs

Midday Veil at the Comet. Photo by Clarita Hinojosa.

Midday Veil at the Comet. Photo by Clarita Hinojosa

Midday Veil at the Comet. Photo by Clarita Hinojosa.

More photos from Midday Veil’s set after the jump.

Midday Veil at the Comet. Photo by Clarita Hinojosa.

Midday Veil at the Comet. Photo by Clarita Hinojosa.

Midday Veil at the Comet. Photo by Lori Starke.

Midday Veil at the Comet. Photo by Andrew Reichel.

Midday Veil at the Comet. Photo by Andrew Reichel.

This Monday night 11/8 at the Comet: Masaki Batoh of Japanese avant-rock legends Ghost brings his Falling Spectre tour to Seattle along with the mighty sound sorcerer known as Jabon and those travelers of the void Tiny Light.   DJ Veins will bring the vinyl.

Batoh and Jabon will continue the tour together down the coast:

11/9/10 Mississippi Studios Portland OR w/ Jabon
11/10/10 The Storm Ship Arcata CA w/ Jabon
11/11/10 The Vortex Room San Francisco CA w/ The Young Elders
11/12/10 Ghost Town Gallery Oakland CA w/ Sic Alps
11/13/10 Pappy and Harriets Pioneertown Palace Pioneertown CA w/ White Magic (solo)
11/14/10 Spaceland Los Angeles CA w/ White Magic (solo) and Young Elders

Friday, Oct. 22

(Jump to Saturday, Oct. 23)

Kicking off Night 1 of this year’s fest are trance-rock shamans This Blinding Light.  Inspired by magick, alchemy, and finding a surprisingly vast number of ways to use two chords to unite heaven and earth, This Blinding Light have quickly risen to prominence within Seattle’s underground psych scene over the past couple years.  TBL’s ritualistic jams are the perfect way to leave the earth behind, so make sure you get there in time to achieve proper liftoff.

This Blinding Light. Photo by Kelly O for The Stranger

Next up is Topanga, CA’s Jeffertitti’s Nile, whose music has been described as a “hypnotic river of sound” that transports the listener to “timeless dimensions.”  Believe the hype.  As soon as we saw this video for S L E E P T O N I G H T, we knew we had to get these guys to Seattle.

Jeffertitti’s Nile will be a tough act to follow, but if anyone can be confidently trusted with that task, it’s Seattle’s Night Beats.  Coming off a spring and summer of almost nonstop touring that included a performance at Austin Psych Fest as well as a number of other notable bills, plus a scorching 7″ on Chicago’s Trouble in Mind Records, Night Beats will bring it all back home with a set of dirty, drunken old-school psych.  Bring your dancing shoes.

Next up is Fullerton, CA’s Dahga Bloom, who have been touring like crazy on the west coast this fall despite having a van’s worth of gear stolen on Sept. 30th. (For a full list of the gear they’re missing, check their MySpace.)  Dahga Bloom’s debut studio LP fuses a stoney desert sensibility with krautrock rhythms and fragments of long lost carnival jams, perfect for carrying you into the evening’s climax.

Closing out the night will be Seattle’s Blood Red Dancers, who have been described by at least one concertgoer as “like The Doors, except good.”  Now, I like The Doors as much as the next head, but I gotta admit, that’s a pretty apt comparison.  It’s all about the Manzarek-esque organ, maaan, which tempers BRD’s balls-out rock-and-roll and gritty Tom Waitsish vocals with a loungey vibe that makes you feel like maybe you were knocked out in a beer brawl in 1972 and you’re just now coming to.

Saturday, Oct. 23

Saturday night promises a lineup of non-stop massive jams and epic drones, beginning with a “special transcontinental experience” with your friendly neighborhood experimental sound gurus Climax Golden Twins.  Expect the unexpected.

Next up is the first Seattle appearance by Edibles, Portland’s new “kosmische dub” project featuring Dewey Mahood from Eternal Tapestry.  Since issuing two extremely limited cassettes this year on Not Not Fun and Stunned Records, Edibles have built a cult following for their dank, sun-soaked jams.  Be the first on your block to know why!

Third on the evening’s agenda is a set of supreme grooves and glorious climaxes from Seattle’s shapeshifting psychonauts Midday Veil, hand-selected to send you “tumbling endorphin over endorphin into higher consciousness,” as The Stranger’s Dave Segal wrote in a recent review of the video Dumb Eyes directed for MV’s Asymptote II.  Rumor has it that the band will be in possession of advance copies of Eyes All Around, their debut studio full-length on the new Shrines-affiliated Translinguistic Other imprint (which you’ll be hearing a lot more about very soon…)

Are you exhausted yet?  Stay with us, because next up is Moon Duo, the side-project-turned-center-project of Wooden Shjips frontman (and perennial Shrines favorite) Erik “Ripley” Johnson and his partner Sanae Yamada.  Fresh from a year of US and European touring and wielding a widely heralded full-length on Woodsist,  Moon Duo promises to deliver a dronerific set of motorik grooves and synth ecstacy laced with hypnotic guitar washes and spaced out vocals.

Closing out the weekend’s festivities are local faves The Curious Mystery, who “blend Sixties-style psychedelia with American country-blues and garage experimentalism” to gorgeous, dreamy ends to help you come down easy.  If you listen closely, you might hear some fresh new tracks from We Creeling, The Mystery’s upcoming follow-up to 2009′s Rotting Slowly on K Records.

On top of the bands, there will be DJs in the lounge both nights (DJs Mamma Casserole and Papa Yod, DJ Mood Organ, Darwin Rodriguez, Clarita Hinojosa, Jermaine Blair and Garek Druss), plus phantasmagoric projections from Portable Shrines, Dumb Eyes, Darlene Nordyke, Ellie DiCola and David Golightly.  What more could you possibly want in a party?!  Advance passes to Escalator are a recession-friendly $18 (cover will be $12 each night at the door). Get yours now via escalatorfest.com.

See y’all this weekend!

kurt vile
meg baird
the dutchess and the duke

More information about the fest is available when you click the photo….

While reading Arthur Magazine’s recent interview with Nabob Shineywater and Rabob Hughes I was particularly struck by Nabob’s concern for today’s youth….after he lamented that he “hoped the Dirty Three would be the next Grateful Dead” he goes on to elaborate about mainstream festivals and youth who attend them…

“I worry about kids today. Who is there to show them the way? There are no great public places left to host the parking lot scenes that [the Grateful Dead] used to have. Cops would bust that up now. Homeland Security? They point it back on the people. I hear at some festivals now, not only do they have pot dogs, but they also tax you on the street value of the pot you’re carrying. Where will positive group references for psychedelics be? A lot of music festivals combine positive bands with bands that express a lot of hate. You don’t want psychedelics in that environment, and kids have the drugs either place. Where will kids meet leaders in a public place? This isn’t going to happen online, or by looking at iconic posters in a music store.”

So grab your crystals, pack your bowl with some sativa or chew a few shrooms and check them out…just maybe we can find in BrightBlack Morning Light what Nabob had hoped for in the Dirty Three…

Tour Dates:

• 01/05 Kennewick, WA @ Red Room w/Daniel Higgs
• 01/06 Olympia, WA @ Big Room w/Daniel Higgs
• 01/08 Seattle, WA @ Vera Project w/Daniel Higgs
• 01/09 Portland, OR @ Holocene w/Daniel Higgs
• 01/10 Eugene, OR @ Sam Bonds Garage w/Daniel Higgs
• 01/12 Arcata, CA @ Humboldt Brews w/Daniel Higgs
• 01/14 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent w/Glasser
• 01/16 Santa Cruz, CA @ Historic Brookdale Lodge w/Glasser

This one’s been out for a bit but few seem to have acknowledged the magnitude of this bomber. The same can be said about most of the mind-boggling achievements of music legend Greg Shaw(1949-2004), the visionary mind behind Bomp! Records and the magazine of the same name. Sci-fi/rocknroll writer and former Deviant Mick Farren teamed up with Suzy Shaw (Greg’s lifelong co-conspirator) and compiled an amazing tribute to his life’s work. The book reprints (mostly for the first time anywhere) an enormous amount of classic material from the now rare and coveted Bomp magazine, even going back to his days editing one of the first ever underground music papers Mojo-Navigator in the midst of the late sixties San Francisco scene. Included for the first time ever is the fabled lost/final issue from 1981 wherein Shaw seems to be proclaiming the end of the punk era and a return to the primeval energy of psychedelic rock (much as he had predicted the rise of the 70′s punk explosion, once again way ahead of most).

To sum up: more than just drool inducing design (tons of rare and unseen photos and graphics) this big book of Bomp was decades in the making and one that you’ll keep returning to, finding more each time.

Its an awe-inspiring look into a era when people sent letters in the mail, did paste-ups and made mimeograph fanzines and wrote with primitive machines called typewriters. Oh yeah, and played real rock and roll from deep inside their guts.