One of the first bands I ever started to follow out of my home town was the Audrye Sessions, the band founded by North Bay musician Ryan Karazija, and based in San Francisco. At it’s core, Audrye Sessions was an emo-centric balladeer group, focusing on soft vocals and hushed tones to deliver devastating songs and cathartic albums. Always on the fringe of the scene, the band popped up on many different kinds of shows and seemed to have found that perfect SF niche: well liked, respected, and still super scret.

 But, it’s been years since I’ve heard anything, and until now I never knew why. Turns out there’s a very good reason. Karazija upped and moved, out of San Francsisco, out of the state, Hell, out of the country. He’s living now in Reykavik, Iceland, a fittingly sparse and desolete landscape (in my imagination), and making those softly resonating sounds under his new moniker, Low Roar. I tell you, it’s an absolutely perfect fit for the songwriter, and his first single, “Give Up,” could not be a more resolute and defining return. Check out the video below, and take a look at Low Roar’s self-titled album, available now on the nicely named Tonequake Records.  By: Nick Grizzle

Forest Park
November 11, 2011 @ Garfield House

with Hang The Old Year, U Sco, and Matter
9:00 pm | All ages | $5 at the door

Forest Park are a band to watch out for here in Portland.They may be young, but their skills are sound, and you can tell they are only getting started. Playing a mixture of shoegaze and indie rock, guitarists Katherine Paul and Maya Kiko Stoner rarely linger on one riff for very long, making for dynamic instrumental breakdowns and moments of dissonant melodic tension.

Big Black Cloud
November 11, 2011 @ The Know
with Buk Buk Bigups, and Blood Beach
9:00 pm | 21+ | $5 at the door

Simply put, Big Black Cloud create aggressive, down and dirty punk rock. Extremely high energy and bordering on the experimental with their use of psychedelic sounds and sludgy breakdowns, the Portland trio headline The Know tonight with fellow psych-rockers, Blood Beach.

The Appleseed Cast
November 12, 2011 @ Doug Fir
with Hospital Ships, and The Hague
9:00 pm | 21+ | $12 at the door | $12 in advance

The Appleseed Cast are best known for their sweeping, instrumental climaxes found on their early discography dating back to the late ’90s. A few lineup changes through the years aside, Lawrence Kansas based quintet are back on the road with their latest release, the Middle States EP. Serving as a natural progression for a band rooted in intricate melodies and emotionally driven choruses, The Appleseed Cast continue to release albums as consistent and impassioned as their very first.

Click here for more information - Visit Concertcoop.com for more events going on around Portland.

Grouper’s Liz Harris, creates a world of ambient noise and eerily beautiful melodies with acoustic guitar in hand and her delicate and somber vocals. Downward strums and subtle electronics, usually in the form of reverb and loop pedals, make Grouper’s songs a patient listen, but one well worth the affect. Headlining the night this Thursday at Mississippi Studios, Liz Harris will be joined by Danielle Menche and Port St. Willow. 

History:

Liz Harris’ solo career, existing under the Grouper moniker, began in 2005 with the release of her self-titled and self-released album of experimental sounds centered around layered tracks of her ghostly vocals and phantom electronics. Grouper’s most notable breakthrough came with the release of Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill  in 2008. Named as one of the top albums of 2008 on Pitchfork, Stereogum, and even ranking in as #2 on Gorilla vs Bear’s “favorite albums of 2008.” That very next year, Grouper was opening up for Animal Collective on their sold out national tour, a highly coveted slot for an independent artist from Portland, OR. The most prominent single, ”Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping,” touches on Harris’ most accessible side, playing like a heavily slowed version of the most mellow of Lush songs.

Five full-length albums later and the influence of those introductory albums can still be heard on her latest, “A I A,” a two part vinyl release comprised of the Dream Loss 12″ and Alien Observer 12″. Containing thirteen tracks bathed in ethereal noise, A I A, offers an undercurrent of vocals and atmospherics that would settle in quite nicely in any David Lynch score. A month after the release of A I A this past April, Animal Collective called on Grouper yet again, offering her a spot on their hand picked lineup for All Tomorrow’s Parties. As she stands now, Grouper’s Liz Harris is probably one of the most unique and critically acclaimed indie artists that you’ve never heard of, that is, until now. 

Website: http://www.myspace.com/grouperrepuorg

SCHEDULE:

-Cat fancy- 3:30- 4:00
-Fucking lesbian bitches 4:15-4:45
-Tombstalker- 5:00- 5:30
-Like a Villain- 5:45- 6:15
-Reynosa- 6:30- 7:00
-Forest Park-7:15- 7:45
-Reporter- 8:00-8:30
-Tender Foreve- 8:45- 9:15
-Stag Bitten- 9:30 -10:00
-Lozen- 10:15- 10:45
-Palo Verde- 11:00-11:30

Tiny Pyramids A.K.A Jared Wright

BY: H-Dawg

HD: What is your Disk Jockey name/alter ego?
JW: When I was DJing a lot I actually didn’t have a name, I just went by Jared but now I go by Tiny Pyramids when I DJ as well.

HD: Who are some of your musical influences?
JW: Some that come to mind: Empire of the Sun, Chromeo, Calvin Harris, Cut Copy, Discovery, Hot Chip, Neon Indian, Toro Y Moi, Small Black, LCD Soundsystem , Twin Shadow, The Presets, Ssion, Private, Junior Boys, Washed out, Boy Crisis, M83, and Old School Hip-Hop (East & West Coast), everything from EPMD to the Heiroglyphics crew. On more of a conceptual or theoretical level: Old folk music like Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen, and newer folk like Elliott Smith.

HD: Your music sounds a bit DFA influenced any of that in there?
JW: Yes! Huge influence. I love James Murphy’s stuff and I love Holy Ghost! and Shit Robot as well. Love the DFA label.

HD: I’m told from some some Friends of mine that they admire that you are super focused and definitely work consistently and eagerly on your projects. Do you feel that way? Describe your dedication?
JW: Yes, I’m very focused and have a great deal of drive to create. Once I start a project I finish it. I think I’ve always been that way and I’m always working on something be it film or music. I can’t stop; if I stop I will die. I used to draw when I was a kid and then I pursued music and then film and I still do a bit of all three. I want every new project I work on to be better than the last so I’m constantly trying to up my game and increase the quality of my work.

HD: What does a typical practice look like? How often?
JW: Throughout the week I will compose by myself on a laptop and a microkorg usually starting with the music and then finding the vocal melody and lyrics later but often the lyrics and the melody will come at the same time. Then, every Sunday night I take what I have to my friend’s studio and we lay something down. Then we work on engineering and mixing it over beers until we’re happy with it. From the start of the Tiny Pyramids project, I knew I wanted to include a female vocal so when I was ready to record, I reached out to Delia Bowen; a rad singer/songwriter from the band Three Legged Sister.  http://www.threeleggedsister.com/

HD: What are your motivators?
JW: Heartbreak, sex, attractive women, films, music, literature, love.

HD: Describe your music?  
JW: My music is fun electronic pop that isn’t too serious or too silly. Tiny Pyramids works perfectly because “Tiny” is light and unassuming and “Pyramids” is serious and majestic.

HD: Throw down a playlist example?
JW: Still Sound - Toro Y Moi Worker Bee - Super Melody Polish Girl - Neon Indian Wait & See (Richard X Remix) - Holy Ghost! Psy-Chic - Ssion Pure Gold - Boss In Drama I Got Soul, I’m Wasted - Wallpaper Sunlight - Bag Raiders Rapture - Data Manic - Azari & III Midnight City (Alcala Remix) - M83 New Beat (Fare Soldi “Canta Tu” Remix) - Toro Y Moi

HD: Next adventure or current movie?
JW: ’m currently writing a new script and I’m taking at a stab at the feature film. I’ve made three films, all of them shorts, and the last one finally went to festivals and did pretty well at one of them so I’m going to bite the bullet and try a feature. We just finished shooting a “test” scene from the script and I’m editing it right now. When the script is ready the search for funding begins and I have a tight-knit crew ready to go. I’m also getting very close to being finished with the Tiny Pyramids EP, which might be called “I Keep You with Me” and will consist of four or five tracks including the two you’ve heard.

HD: What do you use when creating Tiny Pyramids?
JW: I primarily compose with a Micro Korg patched into Reason and then drop all of that into Ableton Live. Then we lay down all the vocals and sometimes add live instruments. My friend David Passarell does all my engineering and mixing and a our friend and excellent musician Kerry Fogerty is always willing and kind enough to play drums and guitar when I want to add a live element, like in the case of “Forever”.

HD: When did the keyboard love begin? JW: Like most kids, when I was young, like 8 or 9, I always liked to play on any keyboard that happened to be in front of me but I wouldn’t just pound on it, I would always meticulously try to recreate a bass-line I heard or a chord from my favorite song at the time. I never had my own until I was in high school and a friend in my Hip-Hop group saved up and bought a really nice big Roland and we went to town on that thing; it was so fun. But, really I cannot play well at all. But, that’s the good thing about electronic music, I can play well enough to loop it and/or cut and paste it and it that works great (as real pianists and keyboardists cringe).

HD: If you could make changes to the local scene what would they be?
JW: I wish the local scene had more of an electronic music presence and generally a wider/larger audience. And, it needs a truly RAD place to dance! Most musicians here are extremely talented but for the most part, all the shows feature the same bands and in turn, the same audiences; a core group of people who all know each other and seemingly don’t need to or are not interested in meeting anyone new. I didn’t grow up here and for me when I arrived, this was kind of a big city so I loved it and saw tons of possibilities but, at times I feel like if you don’t have roots here, you can be treated a bit like the kid who climmed up to the tree-house but won’t be let in because he doesn’t know the password.

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Heather recently sat down with Miles Draags to talk about what he’s been up to and how his project Draags came to be.

TG: First off what do you want us to call you?
M: Miles

TG:  What are you called when your out at the club as a Disk Jockey?
M:  Marles Bukowski or Prince Marles.

TG: What are you working on currently?
M: I’ve been working on a project called Draags. After hearing a band called Soft Moon on my buddy’s podcast Barrr Heaven, I posted an ad on Craigslist asking for an electric drum machine player, a bass player, and a synth player. I’ve always wanted to be in a band with dark synth undertones, heavily bass driven with simple ‘80s drum beats. After getting no responses I said “Fuck it…I’m doing it myself.” So I traded my guitar in for a bass and broke out some old Casio keyboards from storage. I wanted to get weird, to not write music for anyone else but myself. Living in small town Kansas was killing my soul. I was playing in a “rock” band at the time, and I found myself becoming bored with my own song writing. The music was great, but when I got home and played on my own, everything was different. So I quit the band and focused on what I called DRAAGS–taken from a 1973 animated science fiction film called FANTASTIC PLANET.  I’ve self released three tapes under this name; “Evil Time,” ” Bring on the molecules,” and my latest “Alien Dreams for Allen.”

TG:  What other musical projects have you worked on?
M: MID/NITE/LOVE/LITES. Ive been doing home recordings now for over 15 years. I have boxes and boxes of tapes, most of which suck. But to me they’re like audio photographs. In the last three years I’ve come into my own. A group of friends and I started a garage rock band after listening to Nuggets on repeat for months at a time. After our drummer moved to Brooklyn we disbanded and sort of went stagnant for a couple of months.

In a rock and roll fashion I went through a fucked up break up and had a small mental breakdown. I moved home and laid on the couch for three months. Every day a friend would stop by and say “just lay there” which started to get to me. My buddy whose house I was crashing at had a drum set set up in the corner of his living room. I eventually “got up” and started pounding those things, while he was at work, with melodies in my head. I started to use my cell phone to record what I was writing and after licking my wounds returned to Lawrence KS. I lived in this great apartment which we called “The Brick House.” It consisted of twelve apartments, and I believe eight of them were filled with friends and fellow artists.

I borrowed guitars, a Tascam recorder, samplers, basses, whatever I could get my hands on, and recorded a demo under the name CHICK FIGHTS. We immediately started playing shows…and once again, I kinda lost my shit. Lots of ‘boozin and drugs, and yeah, moved back home. But this time I decided, fuck it. My grandmother had a basement that was filled with junk. I “think” i did a bunch of pills (hah) and gutted it out in hours, turning it into my dream studio. Long story short, I devoted almost every hour towards recording. I put out five tapes in two months under the name MID/NITE/LOVE/LITES. For the most part, I just handed them out to friends and family, mailing them to music blogs, people whose opinion I respected. (more…)