Call it a mid-summer lull, or maybe just a rest between the recent festivals and the looming MusicFest Northwest, but it's a curiously quiet week ahead, both on stage and in stores. Still plenty to see and hear, though, the highlight perhaps being Friday night's early date (7p.) with Nellie McKay (and opener Amoree Lovell) at the Doug Fir. Something of an unlikely union between Doris Day, Randy Newman, and Salt -n-Pepa, McKay burst onto the scene a few years back at the age of 19 with an impressively assured debut, a double album at that, that made up for its occasional over-reaches with a biting wit and a fearless approach to genre-bending. Three albums in now, McKay has proven no less the firecracker in her business dealings, refusing to submit to Columbia's demands that she cut songs from her second release, Pretty Little Head (also a double album), eventually leading the label to drop her (much to her delight). Obligatory Villagers, the second release on her own label, came out last year.
MP3: Nellie McKay, from Pretty Little Head- "There You Are in Me"
Also this week, Saturday to be exact, Portland's Bark Hide & Horn issues their debut full-length, National Road, with a release show at Holocene that also includes Hey Lover and Dirty Mittens. The band drew on unlikely inspiration for the new collection of songs, weaving tales surrounding the apparently real-life figure of one Melville Bell Grosvenor, editor of National Geographic magazine for a decade in the mid-20th century. Add to that a smorgasbord of traditional and non-traditional instruments and you have an intriguing premise. Listen to "Grandfather" below.
August 12, 2008 at 10:50am by peg
Hello Jeremy,
I tried to email the No_Spam address on your Inhouseradio blogspot. It bounced. I wanted to tell you nice things! So, I'll try again here:
My husband and I have come to count on In House for your amazing, fresh selection of music old and new (In spite of being 60-something, I especially love to be kept current on the new indie stuff). Your choice of music tickles my ears in all the right ways. Thanks. We don't do television in this household, but we do lots of music.
I tell you this with a trace of sadness, however, because every time we have come to count on any particular music programming offered by OPB, it gets whisked away, and angels with flaming swords apparently bar the door from that point forward. So I could be a jinx. You are forewarned: keep your resume updated.
I hope they keep you around for a long time.
Most sincerely yours,
Peg in Canby OR
August 13, 2008 at 6:21am by dchristensen
Peg -- Glad you've found In House and enjoy it. For the record, I think we're all being extra careful not to step on a crack or go under ladders. And fwiw, before last year when we started In House and opbmusic.org, we hadn't made changes to our music programming in more than a decade.
August 15, 2008 at 6:19am by jpetersen
Hi Peg,
Thanks for the kind words, that means a lot.
I hope I'm kept around for a long time, too ;)
August 16, 2008 at 7:41am by jerryg
Hey guys.. Another 60 something who's learning to enjoy all the local music. Keep up the good work
August 16, 2008 at 10:49am by jpetersen
Good to hear! We seem to be doing well, then, in our target demographic (0-90).
August 16, 2008 at 2:14pm by inmemoryofjohnpeel
What is it about chemistry? Byrne+Eno transforms Byrne to levels rarely reached since Talking Heads days.
Early doors Eno (not an accomplished pianist) commented about mass availability of synths, sequencers and digital mixers thus: "the technology is irrelevant, unless the musician has taken time to listen to a bell in a church, to hear stillness, to spend time... [other analogies]... then their music will not have any force". (I paraphrase)
Incidentally, Israel from Blind Pilot cited a 2004 concert by Byrne in Northern Spain as changing the way he wrote music (the interview is at Nonstarvingartists.com).
And to listener Karen - thanks for the AM Bongwater back-up, her influence on sardonic music production cannot be underestimated.
Lastly, yes JP & DC, you are much appreciated - lets press for a midweek radio show!
August 16, 2008 at 3:12pm by inmemoryofjohnpeel
For me the jury is still out on The Real Tuesday Weld, I like it but, as is our tradition, I reserve some skepticism about my compatriots; is the art-school/spiritual transformation a reality or an imitation?
Cleverly you play the brilliant Leonard Cohen, who also retreated to a monastery (but had very different things to say about it), Co-incidentally I was going to request the cover of Cohen's If It Be Your Will by Anthony - one of the highlight performances of the last decade - and he's playing during PICA in Portland next month with the symphony.
August 16, 2008 at 3:35pm by jpetersen
Fair enough with the skepticism, the lines of fact and fiction are obviously so blurred with Mr. Coates that it may very well be the stuff of make believe. The music and words of Coates lead me to believe otherwise. Thing is, if the music is there does it matter if it was Coates that experienced the dream or The Clerkenwell Kid? Just a thought.
Whoa, didn't know about that Antony show-- an artist we've neglected (not on purpose) for sure, if only because he hasn't been much in the news for the past year or so. Thanks for the tip and the request.
And by the way, nice to have some inter-listener communication round these parts for a change. Thanks all for the continued listening and participation. There's a new blog entry if you want to continue the discussions over there---------------------->
Comments are now closed.