ELEVEN PDX Magazine - October 2019

ISSUE 100 | OCT 2019

ELEVEN PDX MAGAZINE ELEVEN PDX MAGAZINE- -VOLUME VOLUME9,8,ISSUE ISSUE55

COMPLIMENTARY COMPLIMENTARY

THE SPECIAL 100th AND FINAL ISSUE OF ELEVEN PDX: SOUNDS AND STORIES FROM OUR CITY AND BEYOND

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ELEVEN PDX MAGAZINE FINAL ISSUE No. 100

October 2019 THE USUAL 4 Letter from the Editor 4 Staff Credits

COLUMNS 5 Aural Fix

Pure Bathing Culture Hello Yello Black Pumas Crumb

NEW MUSIC

FEATURES Local Feature 12

Laura Hopkins

Special Feature 15

Got 100 issues and they're a centerfold tear-out

Cover Feature 20

A Portrait of Portland COMMUNITY

8 Short List 8 Album Reviews Starcrawler Wilco Angel Olsen DIIV

Literary Arts 26

Paulann Petersen

Visual Arts 28

A collage of previously featured artists

LIVE MUSIC 10 Musicalendar An encompassing overview of concerts in PDX for the upcoming month. But that’s

not all–the Musicalendar is complete with

a venue map to help get you around town.

MORE ONLINE AT ELEVENPDX.COM SOCIALS @ELEVENPDX

HELLO PORTLAND! Wow, is it really October already? The rain is out, the leaves are falling and bands are prepping their cover sets for Halloween (just wait, sounds like there are some good ones comin’!)

Personally, I’m ready for fall. The band I play in, Laura Palmer’s Death Parade, just rocked two cute out of town shows the past few weekends: Wooden Bus Fest on a small farm, and a couple Saturdays ago at Flower Fest in Seattle. On our way back to Portland, we got to visit monuments of our namesake, Snoqualmie Falls and Twede’s Cafe in North Bend, Washington (where Twin Peaks was filmed). I have to say, the rain and mountain fog was just as dreamy as expected, and I cannot wait for the time of year when all the freaks get to be free! I’m stocking up on wigs, glitter, lace, fishnets and some moody synth dreamwave tunes!

That said—the scariest thing of all might be that this issue in your hands right now is likely to be our very last print issue!

But don’t worry! ELEVEN is going off the paper grid and getting a digital reboot, kicking it all off with a Funeral/Revival celebration at Doug Fir on October 19th! Keep this copy close to your heart, because when the Internet crashes and civilization only has scraps of artifacts to hold dear, this will be a relic to cherish! All jokes aside, going digital is pretty exciting and we’re incredibly grateful to the entire Portland scene that has supported our vision and will continue to support us.

Stay dreamy, Portland,

- Eirinn Gragson, Managing Editor

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EXECUTIVE STAFF EDITOR IN CHIEF Ryan Dornfeld (ryan@elevenpdx.com)

ONLINE Michael Reiersgaard Kim Lawson

MANAGING EDITOR Eirinn Gragson (eirinn@elevenpdx.com)

FIND US ONLINE www.elevenpdx.com social channels: @elevenpdx

COPY EDITOR Chance Solem-Pfeifer Richard Houston SECTION EDITORS LITERARY ARTS: Scott McHale CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Matthew Weatherman, Liz Garcia, Mandi Dudek, Anthony King, Kelly Kovl, Nebraska Lucas, Nathan Royster, Charles Trowbridge, Eric Swanson, Henry Whittier-Ferguson.

PHOTOGRAPHERS Mathieu Lewis-Rolland, Todd Walberg, Michael Reiersgaard COVER DESIGN Ryan Dornfeld COVER PHOTO u/calliemaeee

GENERAL INQUIRIES getinvolved@elevenpdx.com ADVERTISING ryan@elevenpdx.com ELEVEN WEST MEDIA GROUP, LLC SPECIAL THANKS Wow. A hundred freaking issues. Look at us, moms and dads! We did it!

We are forever thankful to all of the contributors and supporters that made this project possible. With your help, we will continue to bring quality local journalism, carrying that same torch of love, championing the creative culture of Portland, into the future with an strong digital presence and upgraded website.

To the future with friends!

columns aural fix

AURAL FIX

Photo by Phil Chester

up and coming music from the national scene

1 PURE BATHING CULTURE OCTOBER 23 | MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS Duo Sarah Versprille and Daniel Hindman are Pure Bathing Culture, the time-traveling indie rock band currently residing in Portland, Oregon. Their 1980s aesthetic is so genuine that shifting time and space explains not only the big hair and fog machines used in glorious excess in the music video for “All Night,” but also the dreamy tone of their synth and electric guitar. They are captivating to modern music audiences, having toured by request with Death Cab for Cutie, Lucius and The Shins. This is not some throwback band; yes, their sound is nostalgic, but by wholeheartedly embracing their choices, they are creating modern classics from another era, hence: time-travellers. As they might put it, they having been honing a sonic virtue.

The present isn’t always easy for time-travellers. In the last several years, they were not only dropped by their label, Partisan Records, but also parted ways with their management team.

They are resilient though, as demonstrated in the lyrics to “Thin Growing Things”: “Lift for love and live for something/ Lift for love and live through something/ Lift for love and live through

Photo by Julien Burgueno

2 HELLO YELLO OCTOBER 10 | CRYSTAL BALLROOM Surrounded by Oakland’s hip hop charged music scene, Hello Yello, made up of brothers Dylan and Jaden Wiggins, along with their friend Martin Rodrigues, has taken a more alt rock music route. The trio’s punk and garage sounds come from

something else.” Together with local legend, Tucker Martine (R.E.M., Modest Mouse, The Decemberists), they crafted their latest album Night Pass (Infinite Companion) with meticulous care to serve as a time-machine, so that any listener can go back to a time of easy listening radio hits with sad lyrics that make you feel good.

If you’d like to join them in person, don’t miss them at Mississippi Studios October 23. Whether you get drawn in by Sarah’s dramatic performance or Daniel’s easeful mastery of his instrument, there is something enthralling about being there with them as they co-create their very personal, very beautiful music together. In such an intimate space, with such great sound, it truly will be a journey. » – Matthew Weatherman

growing up listening to the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Linkin Park and Soundgarden. Despite being nudged toward R&B, especially with their father, D’Wayne Wiggins, who was part of the ’90s R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!, Hello Yello followed what comes naturally to them as musicians, an electrifying, renewed grunge rock sound.

Hello Yello is pretty fresh on the scene and has been putting out music as a band for about a year now. Making music was no accident for Rodrigues and the Wiggins brothers, who all attended the Oakland School for the Arts. There, they brushed shoulders with many big name actors and artists who were in their early beginnings, such as H.E.R. and Zendaya. It was while they were in school that Dylan and Jaden began making music with a pre-fame Kehlani. The Wiggins brother had originally joined forces with Kehlani and Zendaya to form the group Poplyfe, which went on to finish in fourth place on NBC’s hit show “America’s Got Talent,” in 2011.

It wasn’t until forming SMSHNG HRTS that the trio started playing together as a band, performing pop and R&B tunes. After some naming rights issues with the Smashing Pumpkins, Hello Yello came to fruition, leaving traces of R&B throughout their debut EP Love Wins— especially the feel good track, “Feel That Again.”

Amidst a music renaissance, merging emo and punk with hip hop and R&B, Hello Yello is taking their music to a whole new level.

It’s not often lo-fi guitars, screamo vocals, funky bass lines and soulful drums collide together perfectly capturing the angst and energy of being young in such a rare way. » – Liz Garcia

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columns aural fix Photo by Shan Khan

4 CRUMB Photo by Greg Giannukos

3 BLACK PUMAS OCTOBER 19 | WONDER BALLROOM

Austin-based duo, Black Pumas, is the collaboration of Grammy-winning guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada and undeniably talented 27-year-old songwriter, Eric Burton—who has seemed to revivify the sound of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, added in a splash of a contemporary twist of their own. Quesada and Burton were introduced through a mutual friend. It only took a few minutes on the phone to decide Burton’s vocals were exactly what Quesada needed to near to know they were on the same wavelength.

Black Pumas is a name reminiscent of African-American activist group, the Black Panthers. It’s no coincidence that the self-titled debut album hearkens back to the same period, even calling upon it in many tracks. One of the first singles released from the album, “Black Moon Rising”, pulls from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising,” calling on the nostalgia of the era, while adding a sinister slice of R&B magic, the soul of the early ‘70s and the electric piano keys with an instantaneous and easily digestible vocal performance.

In a brooding and cinematic effort, “OCT 33” is delivered as a buttery smooth conversation between different generations. On this track, Burton’s intoxicating voice almost stands out alone as it is the song’s main event. One of the LP’s stand-out tracks is, “Know You Better”, where listeners get to experience Burton’s falsetto in raw form.

To end the album with “Sweet Conversations” was a bold choice, but they pulled it off with the utmost confidence and class.

The lyrics are incredibly endearing and bold, and the melody promotes ease and class right from the get-go—something that few artists can pull off so easily.

With a debut album so hard to resist to play from start to finish, don’t miss out on this live performance coming to Portland this month! Black Pumas will be playing Doug Fir Lounge on Saturday, October 19th. » – Mandi Dudek

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OCTOBER 1 | WONDER BALLROOM Fusing elements of Brazilian psych-pop, free jazz and shoegaze, the Brooklyn quartet Crumb make blissfully languid bedroom orchestras for the introspectively inclined. But while it would be tempting to peg Crumb’s brand of aural psychotropics simply as “chill,” lyrically the band’s songs convey contemplative and complex narratives.

Consisting of singer and guitarist Lila Ramani, bassist Jesse Brotter, keyboardist and saxophonist Brian Aronow, and drummer Jonathan Gilad, the foursome met in 2016 while studying at Tufts University in Boston where they each were members of a small, cross-pollinating campus music scene. Ramani had been writing a collection of songs since high school, opening the floor for her future bandmates to freely explore and expand upon them. This experimental process eventually led to the formation of Crumb.

The band released two well-received EP’s: 2016’s Crumb and 2017’s Locket. Recalling the coasting, gossamer vibes of Broadcast, Parsley Sound, Stereolab, and a dearth of ‘60s-era Brazilian pop records, Crumb’s two extended players (and several years of constant touring) quickly solidified the bands luxuriously hypnotic, yet complexly time-shifting sound.

Crumb tapped Fleet Foxes and Soccer Mommy producer Gabe Wax to helm their first LP. They released the ethereal and hypnotic Jinx earlier this year as they had with their previous recordings: independently on their own record label, sans management and booking agents. Ramani’s ethereal vocals glide over luminous guitar and floating bass lines, amplify the album’s dreamy mood. “Last night I laid my head down and felt the demons again” she echoes over the mid-album spellbinder “The Letter.”

Beyond their relaxed, heady vibes, Crumb’s songs possess an intense and alluring gravity that lulls the listener into deeper, more contemplative realms. » – Anthony King

A

QUICK TRACKS

B

“M.R.”

“Nina”

Swirling and swaying like a luminous dream pop phantom, Jinx’s lead single is the epitome of Crumb’s agreeable, alluring cross-genre experimentation.

As walking bass lines and keyboards wind vapor trails around you, you’re instantly under this track’s spell. When Lila Ramani’s vocals chime in, just face it: you’re a goner.

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new music album reviews

ALBUM REVIEWS THIS MONTH’S BEST

R REISSUE

L LOCAL RELEASE

Short List

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DJ Shadow Our Pathetic Age Jaakko Eino Kalevi Dissolution Cold War Kids New Age Norms 1 Jeff Goldbloom I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This Michael Kiwanuka KIWANUKA Hootie & The Blowfish Imperfect Circle Sudan Archives Athena Lady Antebellum Ocean Tummyache Humpday Ty Segall Pig Man Lives Volume 1 Madison McFerrin You + I Hustle and Drone What An Uproar Norman Buzz and Fade

Buy it

Stream it

Disagree? Scold us: @ELEVENPDX

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Toss it

Starcrawler Devour You Rough Trade Records Starcrawler is an LA-band comprised of four young (recently graduated high school) showmasters.

Despite their age, they are set to release their much anticipated second album, Devour You. Following last year’s self-titled album, this one gives listeners another round of lead singer Arrow de Wilde’s punk revival ammo.

Wilco Ode To Joy dBpm Records Wilco fanatics rejoice!

The Chicago-based group is releasing their highly-anticipated 11th album, Ode to Joy. The album fittingly features 11 tracks—including previously-released single, “Love is Everywhere (Beware)” and will be accompanied by an international tour.

Aptly-named Ode to Joy, the album indeed inspires celebration. Its

Devour You successfully captures what their live show sounds and looks wild, unpredictable and loud. It appears to be a kind of kitschy take on punk and de Wilde is in fact wild. No one goes to a show and thinks they’re going to get a mouthful of fake blood spat in their face by the singer on stage—but sure enough, she’ll getcha!

Thirteen tracks feature clean instrumentals on short tracks that manage to retain the essence of ‘70s punk meets indie vibe. Perhaps lyrically a little unextraordinary, they find redemption in pure angst, energy and talent. First single “Bet My Brains” sets the stage for mayhem with a catchy anthem tune, while “Toy Teenager” sounds like an elementary school recess meets obnoxious ruckus. This band feels like an old soul, with the urgency, thrashing and seemingly easy ability to control the chaos of their instruments makes Devour You an anchor in new pop-punk. » – Kelly Kovl

release marks the end of a three year hiatus—the longest the alt-rock icons have gone without releasing music since the inception of Wilco. But while their absence hasn’t diminished their ardent following, it has given rise to skepticism.

With no shortage of alternative-rock groups to compete with, and a legacy to uphold, one may wonder if Wilco’s newest release holds as substantial an impact as previous works.

Wilco is a pinnacle of alternativerock, and time apart has not changed what the band does well. Their songs echo the familiar melancholy of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” and “One and a Half Stars,” in particular, emphasizes the nostalgia, dreaminess and misery commonly found within Jeff Tweedy’s lyrics. Their notable dreariness has not cheapened in effect, nor have their musical capabilities, as evidenced by the experiential “We Were Lucky.”

Wilco earned their place with good reason. Sorrowful songwriting and moodiness will never go out of style. » – Nebraska Lucas

new music album reviews

Angel Olsen All Mirrors Jagjaguwar

When Angel Olsen set out to follow up her critically lauded My Woman (2016) she planned a sprawling double release with two versions of each song, one with

DIIV Deceiver Captured Tracks No one said it would be easy: battling addiction, a hate-speech fiasco featuring a former bassist and an album that nearly broke the band financially, DIIV has faced its share of challenges. The band’s excellent debut, Oshin (2012), marked them as ascendants on the indie rock stage, possible inheritors of the Joy Division PostPunk mantle. But somewhere between the Oshin support tour and the release Is the Is Are (2016), the wheels came off.

Lead singer Zachary Cole Smith, already

a band and one solo. Somewhere inside those plans, she came to a realization: ”I wanted to have versions of these songs that are completely raw and real in the way some of my earlier recordings are, so that I could have the choice to play alone or with a band.”

What now allows her the interchangeable freedom in genre, from her humble days, firmly set in indie-folk, into the more rock sounds of My Woman and pop sounds of this year’s All Mirrors, is her strong confessional voice.

All Mirrors, Olsen’s fourth full length, sonically leans into the Wall of Sound production style, pairing violins and cellos with her lonely reverb vocals.

“Impasse” are imminent, like a horror movie set in a dark woods. It’s a track dealing with the anger stage of a breakup, where objective thought becomes more difficult: “Break it down take what’s left and get out.”

She flows unjarringly through angular electronic tracks “Too Easy” and “New Love Cassette” to the pianodriven “Spring,” where she admits the relinquishment of free will: “Remember when we said we’d never have children/ I’m holding your baby now that we’re older.” This is one of the shining pockets of confessional depth, as much of the lyrical content consists of words like: “dream,” “love,” and “believe.” While Olsen

There’s a lot of hurt here. Opening track “Lark” is a 6-minute string sweller, building up as she reflects on the “what-ifs” of a dead relationship: “If only we could start again/ pretending we don't know each other.” The strings of

brings forth a limited vernacular, she carries the album with her intense power to emote. » – Nathan Royster

once removed from an unsuccessful rehab stint, checked himself back into an intensive in-patient program, vowing to ‘buy-in’ and come out the other side.

Deceiver, the band’s third studio album, looks to make good on that promise.

One of the lead singles from Deceiver is “Skin Game,” an angry, yet measured, look at the overwhelming forces that can face addicts daily. The band nods to prescient feelings with lines

coupled with consistent sharpness on the high hat and ride cymbal, create pointed interjections across the tracks.

Andrew Bailey’s lead guitar is as angular as ever, ripping through muscular riffs of dissonance and grunge. Colin Caulfield’s bass steals the spotlight on tracks like “The Spark,” driving the instrumentals forward like an engine revving at a stoplight just before it explodes off the line.

DIIV feels as clean as ever. The

like, “Strung out to please the king/In Metropolitan's Sackler Wing.” It stands as both a shot at the biopharma giants who relentlessly pushed OxyContin on the public and at the occasional soullessness of the Upper Crust world, only too happy to let money grease the palms of social consciousness.

“Taker” finds the subject matter trained on the bystanders whose lives are equally impacted by addiction. The guitars grind on huge, fuzzy chords, with wailing interludes as Smith’s vocals question the shattered reflection of a jagged existence.

Deceiver carries intensity and touch.

Ben Newman’s drum work stands out across the record. The staccato snare,

band worked with Sonny Diperri, whose production credits include Nine Inch Nails and My Bloody Valentine, and the touch is evident. Tracks like “Blankenship” and “For the Guilty” seethe with a wild energy that Diperri manages to harness, allowing the climactic moments to create a necessary tension with the more subdued stretches.

DIIV is not the first band to try snatch the power of recovery. Some are able to capture the nuances and of the devastation wrought personally and on loved ones, and some just miss. Deceiver has something to say. DIIV has risen above the noise with clarity, while still embracing its critical raucousness. » – Charles Trowbridge

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live music

OCTOBER CRYSTAL BALLROOM

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1332 W BURNSIDE

Too Many Zooz | Thumpasaurus | Common Slum The Growlers Oh Sees | Prettiest Eyes | POW! Tinariwen | Lonnie Holley Clairo | Beabadoobee | Hello Yello Big Thief | Palehound

THEATER 2 ROSELAND 8 NW 6TH

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Kishi Bashi Australia’s Thunder From Down Under Big K.R.I.T. – From The South With Love Tour 2019 | Rapsody | Domani Harris BABYMETAL | The Hu Dodgr | Falcons | Blimes And Gab | MAARQUII Judah & The Lion Danny Brown | Ashnikko | ZeelooperZ

FIR 3 DOUG 830 E BURNSIDE

The Main Squeeze | Bombarg Drahla Paul Cauthen | Kyle Craft Cosmo Sheldrake | Altopalo Songhoy Blues | Máscaras Yoke Lore | Bad Bad Hats Phantoms | Georgia White Reaper| The Dirty Nil | Criminal Hygiene Matty Matheson Fink Delta Rae | Frances Cone Mating Ritual | Aan The Quick & Easy Boys | Otis Heat ELEVEN PDX Print Funeral Day Party (4-10pm) Loving Cory Wong | Phoebe Katis Jonathan Bree Y La Bamba EP Release Last Dinosaurs | Born Ruffians Penelope Isles The Weeks | Future Thieves and H.A.R.D. 30-31 Built To Spill ‘Keep it Like a Secret’

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MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS 3939 N MISSISSIPPI

Leslie Stevens | Bob Sumner Starcrawler | Kills Birds Nikki Lane | Carl Anderson Joan Shelley Julian Lage Trio Tom Armstrong | Kassi Valazza Faye Webster | Jenny O Altin Gün Lithics | Sun Foot | Collate Ural Thomas And The Pain | Tribe Mars Dirty Revival | Lounge on Fire Typhoon Dolorean | Michael Hurley

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live music

OCTOBER MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS 3939 N MISSISSIPPI

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21 22 23 24 25 26 28 Portland Cello Project: Elliott Smith, Ellington & Bach 29 Haley Heynderickx 30 HTRK | Soft Kill | Choir Boy | Physical Wash 31

Black Belt Eagle Scout The Builders and the Butchers | Talkin' to Johnny Pure Bathing Culture King Black Acid's Rainbow Lodge | The Ghost Ease WEINLAND The Helio Sequence | WL Moorea Masa & The Mood | Blossom

WONDER BALLROOM 128 NE RUSSELL

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The New Mastersounds | Maxwell Friedman Group

Gus Dapperton | Spencer.

Big KRIT | Rapsody | Domani Harris Maribou State | Sea Moya Stereolab | Wand The Regrettes | Greer Black Pumas | Neal Francis Caamp | Ballroom Theives Mumiy Troll Dinosaur Jr. at Wonder Ballroom | Steve Gunn Frankie Cosmos

HOLOCENE

1001 SE MORRISON

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Blanck Mass | Helm | Steve Hauschildt Drake Nite Allday | Mallrat Oh, Rose | Plastic Cactus | No Aloha Dance Yourself Clean RUEL Free Time World Tour Darius Jones | Saloli | Embedded Star Ensemble Mild Orange Amulets | Derek Hunter Wilson | Hugo Ra Paris Full Send: Back To School Goldroom Halloween at the Bronze: Buffy Tribute

RONTOMS

600 E BURNSIDE

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White Bike | Charts 6 Rain Cult | Yuvees | Fire Nuns 13 Sama Dams | After Play 20

KELLY'S OLYMPIAN 426 SW WASHINGTON

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Eye Candy VJs (Mondays) Party Damage DJs (Tuesdays) KPSU DJs (Wednesdays)

The Casual Scene | Charley No Face | Christian Burke

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Doppelgangaz | Nacho Picasso | Remember Face

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Drunken Discourse 5

Early Comedy Open Mic 6

The Palmer Squares | Stevie Ray | Ryan van Haygan 10 Michael Donhowe and the Sin City Rollers | Luminous Things

Spec Script: Tales from the Crypt Glitter Girlas Synchrno-niss With Me The Kickback | Drae Slapz VHS Venheance OUT/LOUD Centaurs of Attention

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features OCTOBER

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POLARIS HALL

635 N KILLINGSWORTH CT

Juan Wauters | Mope Grooves Black Joe Lewis | The Honeybears Solomon Georgio Andrew Combs | Izaak Opatz The Delines The Legendary Pink Dots | Orbit Service Lust For Youth | Patricia Wolf

REVOLUTION HALL 10 1300 SE STARK 2 4 5 8 12 14 17 20 26 27 29

An Evening with Al Franken Keb' Mo' Daniel Norgren | Jake Xerxes Fussell Conversations with Nick Cave Steve Hackett | Spectral Mornings The Manhattan Transfer Rick Wakeman WITCH | PETYR Portland Psychedelic ConferenceWhitney | Lala Lala Natasha Bedingfield

CLUB 11 TOFFEE 1006 SE HAWTHORNE ALBERTA STREET PUB 12 115 NW 5TH The Alliance Comedy Showcase (Sundays 9pm) Karaoke with The King (Mondays)

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The Chuck Israels Nextet (Wednesdays)

Broke Gravy & Friends Misty Mtn Star Crusher Lula Wiles | Cahalen Morrison Kathryn Claire | Eccoh Eccoh Eccoh Laryssa Birdseye (Release) | Mama Sam & the Jam The Minders, Vasas, Dakota Theim Caspar Jenna Ellefson & Amanda Breese The Waysiders, White Lights, Misner & Smith Joshua James & the Runaway Trains

S THE SECRET SOCIETY 13 116 NE RUSSELL Venue closed. Another one bites the dust.

Thank you for all the magical memories!

WHITE EAGLE 14 836 N RUSSELL 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10

Left Turn | Between Dimensions | Chris Juhlin Marianne Flemming

Brent Amaker Death Squad | The Lowdown Drifters

Daria's Confessional Cabaret Wallace | Trujillo The Dead Band Acoustic Trashcan Sinatras - One Night, Two Albums Joypress | Open Floor Plan | Lo Fives Ten Spiders | Flying Caravan | Echocheck

12 | ELEVEN PDX

LOCAL FEATURE

by Eric Swanson

Laura Hopkins

inger-songwriter, guitarist, doom metal harmonist, highway enthusiast, full-moon-wary Laura Palmer is the artist alter ego of the talented Laura Hopkins. A founding member of the female fivesome Blackwater Holylight, and the namesake of Laura Palmer’s DEATH PARADE, her latest release Bricks of Ivanhoe (recorded without her usual collaborators) is a five song EP that manages to triumph over the seven stages of grief.

The EP is sure to leave you wanting more, but don’t fret—there is plenty of new music on the way for, in her own words, “People who like listening to music at different volumes.” (AKA fans of each of her projects have something to look forward to.)

Regardless of one’s preferred decibel range, the emotions and sentiments of Laura’s music will find their way under your skin. You’ll be glad, because their resonance is proof that the burden of being is a burden shared.

You can catch Laura Palmer’s DEATH PARADE with Thelma and the Sleaze at The Fixin’ To on Monday October 7th as well as kicking off a full line-up at the ELEVEN PDX Print Funeral and Digital Launch Party, October 19th at Doug Fir.

ELEVEN : The first test of the

local feature: are you a Pacific Northwester?

Laura Palmer: I think so? I’ve been in Portland for ten years. And then I lived in Eugene for ten years.

Then before that, I just kinda cruised all over America in an RV with my mom and my brother.

11: Was your mom into music?

LP: Not at all. She never had music on in the car. Never had any sound.

She would drive for hours with no music on… so weird.

11: Books on tape? Radio?

LP: Books on tape. So much Harry Potter.

11: When and why did you start playing guitar?

LP: I grew up playing piano—my dad plays. I think I was ten when I got a guitar and I just taught myself. I learned a lot of finger picking stuff that was really soft because I didn’t want anyone to hear me. Playing louder came later.

11: You sing in two bands; how did Bricks of Ivanhoe turn into a solo release?

LP: I think of Bricks of Ivanhoe as a session, and that’s why I wanted to call it something different than Laura Palmer’s DEATH PARADE. With DEATH PARADE, I really want it to be more of a collaboration of minds with the people I play with.

These songs feel more personal and rooted in a ‘me’ emotion. I wanted to release Bricks of Ivanhoe to have it out there and move on to doing other things.

WHITE EAGLE 836 N RUSSELL

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Samsel 11 Brendan Jams 12 Jessa Campbell 13

Ashleigh Flynn | The HawtThorns | Leeroy Stagger Jenny Sizzler Grave Tales, Unearthed- "Spirits of Stumptown" Kent Smith | Tommy Alexander | Taylor Kingman Fox and Bones | Junebugs JT Wise Band DBUK LR Showcase Brewer's Grade & Dirty Uncle Rose The Dark Horses | Chasing Ebenezer Hot Company | Stone Boats | Swamp Boys

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11: There’s a raw, intimate quality to these recordings.

LP: I like to record live and to try and just do one take of something.

You know if something falls to the floor, or if you hit a wrong note, that’s just what it is—that’s just part of the experience. Bricks of Ivanhoe was live except for the harmonies.

11: Your song “Apartment Divorce” dates back to 2015, how did it end up on Bricks of Ivanhoe?

LP: There was no goal behind learning guitar. It was more like an emotional release of sound. I just wanted to make sounds. I had to, so I kept on learning more and more chords.

LP: It made sense to include it with this batch of songs since they’re all pretty relationship based. The first recording of “Apartment Divorce” I did by myself with the microphones I had. This was more wanting to go to a studio and get a clearer vocal sound and basically to have as a learning experience so I can slowly get to where I want things to be eventually.

11: Are you happy doing music full time?

11: Did you discover anything in the process of revisiting the song?

LP: Yeah. I’ve never really had normal jobs. I used to work at a traveling pizza company that would work at music festivals. We would hitchhike to each musical festival—Coachella, Bonaroo, Electric Forest—make pizza and catch some of the shows. And I remember not doing music, but being around it, being like: “Damn I wish I could just be doing the music part and not making all this friggin’ pizza.”

LP: I originally wrote that song about my best friend’s relationship.

It was based solely off what she had experienced. And then I went through pretty much the same thing and I was like, “Wow, this song is really relatable now to my experience” (laughs). In the beginning I was singing about her, but now I’m singing about myself.

11: Were you thinking about being a professional musician back then?

features OCTOBER

11: Did writing without your other bands in mind affect your songwriting process?

TURN! TURN! TURN! 8 NE KILLINGSWORTH

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Name That T-t-tune (Tuesdays)

D Pel and the Strange Attractors | Complimentary Colors DIY Sluts | Guppy | Dimwit Hugh Jepson | Will Hattman | Amy Subach Risley | Kool Stuff Katie | The Loved Avery Leigh's Night Palace| Tiny Fireflies | Ancient Pools Creative Music Guild Outset Series Dramady | School Nights | Zigtebra Michael Beach | Lavender Flu | Thigh Master | Michael O CEEYS | Christopher Sky | Coastlands Gardener | Kyle Landstra | Lilia | Keith Foster The Chippunks | The Zom B-52's | The Nummies Cynthia Nelson + Digressive Combine | more Power Trash (Replacements) | The Post Modern Lovers

HAWTHORNE THEATRE

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VALENTINES

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Lucero | The Vandoliers Jakob Ogawa | niña Jpegmafia | Butch Dawson Pete Yorn: You & Me Tour Josh A & Jake Hill | Darko & Jordanxbell Wage War | Like Moths to Flames | Polaris Alien Weaponry Matt Heckler & Casper Allen Lil Pete Live!

Wale | Deante' Hitchcock | Adé P-Lo | Guapdad4000 WORWS Amigo The Devil | King Dude | Twin Temple Strung Out | The Casualties | Cliterati

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Karaoke with Atlas (Mondays) Disco Volante Celebration of House Signal Lynnsy's Birthday Celebration Barz and Beatz New Girl

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elevenpdx.com | 13

features OCTOBER

ALADDIN THEATER 18 3017 SE MILWAUKIE 15 18 19 20 23 24 26 29

Son Volt | Peter Bruntnell The Talbott Brothers - Run No More Tour Night of Bowie - Glass Of Hearts Leo Kottke Lucy Dacus | Liza Anne The Wailers Okee Dokee Lee Scratch Perry | Subatomic Sound System HOLLYWOOD THEATRE A not-for-profit organization whose mission is to entertain, inspire, educate and connect the community through the art of film while preserving an historic Portland landmark.

4122 NE Sandy Blvd, 97212 503.493.1128 hollywoodtheatre.org

THE GOODFOOT 19 2845 SE STARK Boys II Gentlemen (Tuesdays) Soul Stew w/ DJ Aquaman & Friends (Fridays) 16 Conscious Nest & Rainbow Electric 17 Far Out West | The Gold Souls

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Funklandia Presents: All-Star James Brown Tribute Oregon Music News 10th Anniversary Celebration

Brizzleman and Onion the Man Costume Party Get on Up "Monster Mashup" Halloween Party Funk N' Roses An MRU Halloween with Jenny Sizzler

STAR THEATER 20 13 NW 6TH 14 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Black Lips | Blue Rose Rounders Aesthetic Perfection | Empathy Test | Lazerpunk WHYT RBBT | AnTenNae LowRIDERz | PRSN Chamelons Vox | Theatre of Hate | Jay Aston Hot 8b Brass Band Jordan Rakei | Sam Wills Heart Bones | Atari Ferrari Blackwater Holylight | RIP | Pushy Com Truise

THE LIQUOR STORE 21 3341 SE BELMONT 17 18 19 20 23 24 25 29 30 31

Peridot | Upper Strata | Small Skies Global Based: House Party Discorama | Chanti Darling | Sappho | Orso Nick Arneson | Megan Diana Kids | Love Hiss | Soft Cheese

Somesurprises | Mini Blinds | Ancient Pools | Palm Crest

The Throwback

Barna Howard | Justin Kinkel-Schuster | Spencer Thomas

Yuvees | All Hits | Neck Romancer YLYM Hocus Pocus Party : Kulululu

DANTE'S 22 350 W BURNSIDE 17 18 19 20 21 23 24 25

Legendary Shack Shakers | The Stubborn Lovers | more

¡Mayday! Fire In The Sky Tour Angelo Moore & the Brand New Step Sinferno Cabaret Karaoke From Hell Messer Chups | The Delstroyers | King Ghidora Eyehategod | Negative Approach | Sheer Terror D.R.I.

14 | ELEVEN PDX

LP: The song “The Type” has chords I would never pick normally.

They’re all kinda major-y and not the kind of stuff I’d want to use with DEATH PARADE. I really like the lyrics in it but… the chords are so happy sounding. To me that song is: “Okay so I wrote a song with major chords, it’s done, I never have to do it again.”

thing for me with writing—feeling out where different melodies can be reached in your body. A lot of DEATH PARADE is written in 3/4 because of the sway that I enjoy.

Playing and experimenting with piano too… and driving—making music to stare out at a road that’s going out forever and having time to think about everything.

11: Are you planning a solo tour for these songs then?

11: How do you find balance between Blackwater Holylight, DEATH PARADE, and Laura Palmer?

LP: I think so. I definitely love driving by myself and having something to share and connect with other people.

11: When you drive cross country do you drive the speed limit?

LP: It depends… I drive in a really small car and in the beginning of my last tour I was definitely going 90mph because I was excited. But my tires got bald very quickly and then I was driving 55mph in the middle of Utah because they didn’t have tires the size of my tiny car.

11: How do you feel about hitting bugs with your car?

LP: That’s fine. I’m pretty chill with death. It just happens. You’re just living your life.

11: Do you enjoy being an artist in the Pacific Northwest?

LP: It’s beautiful. Not too hot.

There are lots of resources here—especially for artists, for healthcare and things… but it’s been hard to get housing and also be an artist, because music doesn’t really support you. Our practice space got sold to be turned into condos and that just kinda seems to be what’s happening. I like the community of artists here. People are still doing it, people are still making it work.

11: Do you make any other art?

What sorts of things inspire your songwriting?

LP: I used to dance and was part of a company, so I feel like rhythms and movements are a really important

LP: It’s definitely a balance. The chemistry I have with Blackwater Holylight is incredible. It’s something rare and special to have a group of five women working together and processing vulnerability and being told to be quiet and then coming into a scene and being loud. But after 3 months of touring, my ears need to balance that out.

Playing with DEATH PARADE provides a different release—it’s got more of a sway and that’s super needed too. It’s about the experience of playing music and sharing emotions rather than what you’re supposed to do with a band if you want to be pushing it with labels. It’s also just nice to have a band that isn’t limited by deadlines.

And then the solo stuff, Laura Palmer is… I try to make it as quiet as possible. (laughs) 11: What can people expect from your shows?

LP: Blackwater Holylight is… fuzzy.

Heavy. Loud. Like, if you like to listen to music without ear plugs you might come to my solo show.

Some nights of DEATH PARADE are a little bit quieter, but it’s very mood based. If I’m in a mood, or if we’re in a mood, it’s gonna be louder. If not, it’s gonna be chill.

11: How are the moods determined? Tarot?

LP: I think it’s determined by moon cycle. Just being a woman, my body tells me how to feel. ...continued on p.19

11: I’m not an expert, but if the moon can control the tides and people are like 60% water… that’s all the proof I need.

are the most incredible thing— being alive.

LP: I don’t go out when it’s a full moon. I don’t go to the bar or anything because I know and I’ve seen that people get more crazy.

LP: People have ideas about people who make music: that rock stars and musicians are somehow different for everyone else. But they’re not, they’re just people living their lives and music is just what they happen to be doing.

I hope someone thinks, “I’m a bedroom recording artist totally afraid of everything and I want to make music,” so I can be like, “You can do it! Go do it! Cause, what else are you doing?” »

11: What’s one of the best parts about performing music?

LP: Inspiring people to make art, because everything else is just a capitalistic sack of shit. It’s not real. I want to remind people that the days that they’re experiencing

Laura Hopkins Bricks of Ivanhoe Self-released With the rain comes Bricks of Ivanhoe, the new EP from Portland singer/songwriter Laura Hopkins, a wistful walk through the lonely house of memory. Known for her vocal work with Laura Palmer’s DEATH PARADE and Blackwater Holylight, Hopkins has garnered a reputation for her haunting lyrics and melancholic style, which fits as well over downtempo synth pop as it does over twangy post-punk.

On Bricks of Ivanhoe, her style is stripped to its core: simple guitar riffs backing barebones harmonies. It’s only her left to occupy the vacated space.

The album opens with shimmering guitar on “Living Alone,” a track which sets the tone for the rest of the album, swelling with anticipation into

11: Any other thoughts to share?

the general emptiness. The second song, “Apartment Divorce,” begins to contextualize that emptiness: “A last look at the shelves that you put in together/lightly covered in dust that never set there before.”

The project is an examination of the ways in which people shape spaces, and are in turn shaped by them, only to leave something of themselves behind when they go.

The drums first come in on “The Type,” a welcome addition from Mario Gutierrez, who, alongside Marion Lozano, make up Wavpi, the production duo handling the project. The energy swells from there into “Sugarcoat,” which finds Hopkins losing herself in the affirmation of repetition. “Still I choose love,” she sings, embracing life in spite of its pain.

To call Bricks of Ivanhoe a breakup albums seems somehow to diminish it—the project is less concerned with the relationship than with the contours of the break, tracing the outlines across time and space from the emptiness of a once-shared apartment to the strangely bright loneliness of the sky at night. The album embraces sadness but doesn’t wallow in it, taking the pain as part of an everchanging whole, which also will pass with time. » - Henry Whittier-Ferguson

features OCTOBER DANTE'S

350 W BURNSIDE

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FIRKIN TAVERN

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The Adicts with Bridge City Sinners Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band All Hype | Small Field | Dog Lord | Poppyseed Full Metal Jackson | Hyjinx | Confessions Dead Animal Assembly Plant

1937 SE 11TH

Plastic Cactus | Bridal Party | Shadowgraphs JOOSS | Mall Radio | EBRM Charts | Don Babylon | BR Mount and The Doubt Mean Sun | David Strackany

SPARE ROOM 4832 NE 42ND

NO FUN

1420 SE POWELL

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The Big Net | Grolixes | The Mighty Missoula Cosmonox | Data Tombs | Soul Ipsum | Ian Hicks BR Mount | Sean K. Preston | Wildcat Rose Virtue Signals | Jan Julius | Dreams | TotalFailureXD Arjavac | Celadon 2077 | Dusty Bennett | Nolid NONE | The Deadset | Has/Will Teton | Ever Ending Kicks | Half Shadow No Fun Halloween Rock n Roll Covers Show Shaylee Album Release Show Cornucopia Phantasmagoria - Halloween Show!

Mad Honey | DYGL Roach Wrangler | Rotten Monolith | CobraThief GUNK | Anothernight

TWILIGHT CAFE & BAR

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Karaoke Mon-Wed Devin Phillips Band Dylan May & The Message Tevis Hodge Jr The Get Down I Want Candy Shanrock's Triviology Son De Cuba

1709 SE HAWTHORNE

27 28 29 30 31

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On The Road Again Space Monkey Mafia | Simple Minded Symphony | more Wicked Shithead | OAFS A//tar | Rust | Hemotoxin | The Sleer Dirt Lunch | Gaybysitter | Tigerbite Austin Lucas | Wonderly Road The Beat-on Brats | Muddy River Nightmare Band | more Barshasketh | Deitus | Peste Umbrarum | Diabolic Oath

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WHITE OWL SOCIAL CLUB

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BUNK BAR

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1305 SE 8TH JURACÁN 17 DJ Lamar Leroy 19 FWD PDX 22-23

1028 SE WATER

Tents | Maita | Yoya Tom West | Pacific Trio | Jeffrey Silverstein Daystar | The Resolectrics | Messimer Sensi Trails | Chris Carpenter | The Collective | more Pecas | Basil Strawberry Cry Babe | Moon Palace |Whisper Hiss Night Heron | Kileo | After Play Front Country | Long Gone John Claire George | Maiah Manser | Joshua Thomas No Aloha | Bad Phantom | Yellow Room | Wild Shape

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elevenpdx.com | 19

A Portrait of

Portland

For this, the 100th and quite possibly final print issue of ELEVEN PDX, we asked a few friends in the community to share their thoughts and stories in response to the question, "What does the Portland music scene mean to you?"

Growing up in a series of small towns (from Ohio to Northern California), there always seemed to me a magical, mythical distance between l’il ol’ me and the great wide world of art. Even though I’ve been surrounded by and playing music all my life, it took me until just a couple years ago to even call myself a “musician.”

I moved to Portland on a whim, though one might more aptly call it a quarter-life crisis. After undergrad, I escaped a toxic relationship by hopping into my friend’s car, camping across the country, and landing in Portland two weeks later with little-tono regret. I accredit Portland to all the good things in my life right now, and more specifically the music scene, which gave me a new and healthier kind of life. Within 6 months of moving here, I met a group from Alaska who played in a band called Animal Eyes, and from there I somehow snowballed into the music scene I know and love so dearly. Between writing and editing for ELEVEN, getting to work on photoshoots with bands like The Shivas, Blackwater Holylight, Cry Babe, Reptaliens, and Bryson Cone, and endless artistic support from my found family of friends, I feel encased in a musical bubble of love.

And yes, that’s not to say that Portland isn’t changing. I feel it every day, as I know we all do. The world is shifting in a tangible and eerie way, to say the least. But I’m still holding on to the precious and still utterly rare community of artists wanting to collaborate, create, share and be kind to one another. » – Eirinn Gragson 20 | ELEVEN PDX

Arriving in the spring of 1972, I began working in a Portland record store. There did not seem to be much of a music scene at the time, but when OLCC regulations changed shortly after, bands were allowed to play in bars and people could go dance to a cornucopia of music. This blossomed and has been evolving ever since. Many of the musicians who were playing in the ‘70s are still playing today, alongside those from the ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s and 2010’s. The sounds of our city come varied in all genres, from hip-hop to classical. There are no barriers, as musicians from one genre may collaborate with those of another genre.

Some of the world has been able to experience the music of our city through recordings that have been released and from visiting. Even though places like Austin, New York and Nashville may be considered prime music cities, there is a great argument that Portland is a contender along with them.

As I write this, I just passed my 47th year in the industry, all but 2 in our fair city. I’ve had the opportunity to visit many cities around the country, and I can say that I am proud to be part of it and Portland can be proud of what has evolved. We have first class clubs and venues, run by passionate people, and we have quality musicians who seem to work together to create the musical landscape.

I only hope that the growth of the city and the escalating rents do not harm either of those. A music fan can go out every night of the week and see a different local artist perform—every day of the year—and each could be a great musical experience. Most cities can’t boast that.

I came through a few more times in 2006 and 2007 on tour from Brooklyn with my 2-piece art-rock band. We played on The Know’s blown-out-PA on an unusually hot summer day. Everyone was drenched with sweat and I was the only person wearing a color.

I’ve felt fortunate to be part of the musical community here, to have possibly helped make it better by being involved with the many others who help make it what it is today.

But in 2012, my old bandmate asked me to help fill out some forms for a radio license he was working on, and what is now XRAY.fm started to take shape. I came to rediscover the openness, synchronicity and love I had first encountered here in 2005. I finished school, but I stayed here, launched XRAY, joined a band, signed to Kill Rock Stars, went on tour a lot, started a solo project, joined 7 or 8 more bands and started a record label. I guess what I found in Portland was that I didn’t have to pretend to separate politics from art, and that art is necessary to interpret and change the world. Portland artists and musicians keep reminding me of that, and I’m thankful.

– Terry Currier

This was my idea of Portland until I moved here in late 2010 on a law school scholarship—pretty much intent to quit music, which I had begun to see as connected to a vapid scene fueled by unearned wealth and indifference to suffering. I also fully intended to move back to NYC after I finished school.

– Jenny Logan

When I first started touring up from California in 2005 or so, Portland was like the dark wild west where you could play a show on the 3rd floor of an abandoned hotel, talk your suicidal drummer down from jumping out the window while watching a queer noise rock band, and then see your favorite band at the time (The Planet The) ride by on their bikes at 2am when the show was over. elevenpdx.com | 21

FEATURES Portland is opportunity grown into commitment. Many of us came here for the chance to be ourselves, to make things and find a home. But we also came here ignorantly. Portland is the stolen autonomy of many bands of native nations, furthered by exclusionary statism and propped up by predatory capitalism. For all its history of influential art, DIY weirdos, labor victories, radical individualism, queer liberation and cultural cool, we can't abandon the past or rest on nostalgia. Music is a part of community. Even with all the connections technology affords, community is still rooted in a place. After all this region and its people have done in order for us to have the privilege to build and create, Portland is a debt owed—one that can’t be repaid, but one gladly worked. We won't pretend this duty is often self-serving, too shallow, and even uncoordinated, but we hope it’s at least unharmful and at best beneficial. Even with all its contradictions and changes, Portland is still beautiful. So be kind to one another.

Remember the past, and make the future better.

– Aaron Colter

get the driver pumped. It’s not an uncommon occurrence; the bar around the corner from my place seems to cater to patrons with very unfortunate tastes. The boomin’ beatz, however, are punishing, shaking the plaster off walls and sending my cat running down the hallway, yelping at the top of her lungs.

Then…

“Turn that fuckin’ shit off!” a neighbor thunders from the apartment complex across the street. Damn right! You live in Portland, Oregon, Jack; you should have better taste in music than this.

Seriously, we live in such an incredibly rich independent music environment, it’s almost embarrassing. This is the town that’s musical history boasts The Kingsmen, The Dharma Bums, Hazel, Quasi, and Elliott Smith (to name but a very few). Some of what’s left of Sleater-Kinney still call Portland home, Stephen Malkmus had the good sense to move back, and Elephant 6 Recording Company vets The Minders just put out a new single on their Bandcamp page. You can’t walk down the street in this town without spotting at least three different people sporting Wipers T-Shirts.

Blouse, Woolen Men, Menomena, Portugal.

The Man, And And And, Eyelids, Reptaliens and pretty much any and every band Jenny Logan is in: all but a fraction of Portland’s current crop of amazing musical talent. Add to this, the annual 40-song PDX Pop Now! compilation, the Pick-A-Thon music fest in nearby Happy Valley, Tender Loving Empire’s expertly curated output, the legend that is Larry Crane, and half a kajillion music venues, large and small, hosting shows featuring local and national touring acts all across town. That’s just scratching the surface of Portland’s music scene (feel free to write in your faves in the margins)!

It’s 11 o’clock on a Thursday night, and just as I start to put fingertips to keyboard to express what Portland’s music scene means to me, a flashy Mercedes Benz rolls up blaring whatever gym jams that seem to 22 | ELEVEN PDX

Even as scrappy “old Portland” is systematically being sanitized to make way for an endless array of human storage towers (not even the tourist-luring food cart pods are safe), Portland’s music scene is still chugging along just fine, thank you very much.

– Anthony King

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elevenpdx.com | 23

FEATURES

Arriving in Portland on December 1999 was quite an eye opener for me, especially coming straight from Los Angeles, where I was born and raised. I put an ad in the paper, looking for "like-minded" artists to play music with, which—if my stoned memory serves me well—was Pinback, Nick Drake, Yo La Tengo, etc. Flash forward 20 years, and I'm still playing music, way more frequently than in the years starting out. I am currently in 16 bands and loving every damn moment of it. The music community has changed dramatically, drastically, and according to some, devastatingly. Change is inevitable: we all know this, but for our "tiny" city, it has been under a microscope for well over a decade. We have been the launch pad for new ideas, good and bad, and that can have repercussions. I, for one, am all about change.

But let's not forget, what makes (and made) this city is the new waves of sound, and people it brings from all over the country.

I start new bands frequently, to remind me of what it was like starting from the bottom, from playing amazingly sweaty, intimate house or generator shows in the middle of nowhere, to playing on a Tuesday night in front of three-and-a-half homies. That's real talk, right there. It's always an energetic, reaffirming feeling going out to see up-andcoming bands that leave an imprint on your psyche. The music community is always in movement. That's not to say that the music is only forward movement, but that's what makes people feel, understand, heal, sing, dance, cry, scream or just stand still when

24 | ELEVEN PDX

they hear a sound they can relate to. This is why music is ever-healing, and like the music itself, the community will always shift. We should learn to embrace it, in all its ebbs and flows.

– Papi Fimbres

Portland’s music community was one of the first creative communities I was ever part of outside of a school. Until I came here in 2006, I didn’t understand how a “scene” could be anything but a cool kid’s club, one that I was likely not going to get to be a part of based on my previous experiences in LA. But what I quickly came to understand about Portland —within my first few shows and music people I encountered—was that collaboration, rather than cool, was at its core. The web of musicians practicing, living together, playing in each other’s projects and promoting each other’s shows— with the simple end of pushing their art to ever loftier heights—seemed more like a community than a scene. People weren’t trying to get rich or get signed or “network” —they were just trying to fuck it up with a weirder sound or a wilder performance than last time, to impress their friends or make them laugh or cry, or both. And that’s still true today.

I’ve met some of my best friends through music in Portland. I’ve shaped my life, my business and my family (which often blur together) around the music and art communities of this town. The hundreds of shows I’ve seen and played in over the years

have shaped me in ways that are impossible to fully understand or appreciate. I’m not sure who I would be without this wonderfully inclusive and wildly creative music community.

Thank you Ryan and the rest of the staff at ELEVEN for 9 years of cataloguing all this beauty and thank you Portland for creating it.

– Jared Mees

It’s good to be home When the rain is at your back Surrounded by heart attacks It’s good to be home Family and friends and sharing Moments and seeing and faring Into the cinema, under the blankets It’s good to be home Scattered sunlight, tree leaf showers Winter greens, uncommon flowers Reflecting, reflecting, conjuring, conjecturing, Having a bath, a dance, a laugh It’s good to be home I don’t need to click my heels thrice To realize that and this place is nice *** I won't be able to say all that I feel, as so few spaces remain within these margins. I'm grateful, deeply thankful, for all of the people and life and energies that have been distilled into these pages, one hundred times over.

Recently, I overheard "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" blasting from someone’s backyard while on a walk in NE. That song, coincidentally made its way to my current playlist after years of dormancy. The music ’scene’ ( I somewhat dislike ‘scene’ but can offer no suitable fill-in; it’s def more than a ‘scene’) is woven into the fabric of our having-a-[deserved]-moment city.

For this, I am grateful. Grateful for those who make the music. Grateful for the touring bands who stop by. Grateful for those who help make it happen. Grateful for those who support it. Including, but not limited to, our future elected officials / perceived power brokers. Collectively, we must always remind each other, that music is the city’s drumbeat.

Support affordable housing unapologetically.

Clorox blocks create Clorox music. Keep our rosey city farbenfroh.

Many of my early 'scene' stories would involve Dustin and our adventures, at house shows and venues long gone, doing things in the city before queues and traffic were a thing, playing night-minton, other games, and living for music, and art, and creativity. It is my sacred duty to carry that learned beauty into all future endeavors.

You're a beautiful place, Portland. Thank you.

– Ryan Dornfeld

– Kevin Cradock elevenpdx.com | 25

LITERARY ARTS Paulann Petersen by Scott McHale

F

rom Franklin High School graduate to Oregon Poet Laureate, Paulann Petersen has lived the life many aspire to at an early age, but give up in favor of other pursuits. Her poetry, lyrical and emotional, powerfully speaks to that part of us that is often checked-out. More now than ever, we need poetry that both examines and interrogates our past to make sense out of our present. I caught up with Paulann Petersen to discuss her latest collection One Small Sun (2019 Salmon Poetry), where she invites the reader into her memories through a collection of poems that in her own words, “have a story to tell”. In person, Paulann Petersen is as a warm and accessible as her writing is.

ELEVEN: When did you start writing?

Paulann Petersen: In high school, I won an award from a Portland magazine for young poets at that point. I don’t think that I took that all that seriously, or my writing of poetry seriously, but I was always an avid reader, and very moved by prose and poetry. As a young adult, by that time living in Klamath Falls, I was reading a lot of the Saturday Review and I encountered the poetry of contemporary poets. And they just knocked me out. They were so different than the poetry that I had read in college or high school. Which was usually anthologized and from an earlier era. Here were poems that for me seemed like the ink was barely dry. I just said to myself, I want to do that. So I started writing on my own -- No writers group, no MFA program, no classes. I just started writing.

Then after a while, I learned that you could send poems out to magazines. I started sending some poems out, and I had some accepted and I kept writing, and got more poems accepted and published in magazines and journals.

11: What do you think of MFA programs? Can poetry truly be taught in a classroom?

PP: People argue about what MFA programs do. There are wonderful poets that come out of those programs. But there are different opinions about them. When I was at Stanford, Stanley Kunitz was one of the poets who visited and he said that he questioned them because he thought a lot of them were like “hothouse flowers”. I don’t know, that’s kind of harsh. I could just begin to name off a huge list of people….

11: Can you tell me about your new book, One Small Sun? PP: This book, One Small Sun , is a real departure for me.

Because this book is filled with longer poems. I call them “poems with stories to tell”. I wouldn’t call them exactly narrative poems because I think that there is a fair amount of lyricism in them. In this collection there are poems that were brand new. There are also poems in this book that are older,

26 | ELEVEN PDX

Photo by Mercy McNab much older. My earlier books have shorter more intensely lyric poems. But all through my working life as a poet, I have occasionally written poems that have narrative strands in them. And I worked on them very hard, and gratefully, but set them aside. Then about three or four years ago, I came across one of these poems that I had set aside. I read it and it just struck me, there is something resonating here. I started fishing out, from the archives as it were, some of these earlier poems in type and genre and seeing strengths in them. I came to the point where I sort of set myself a task...I challenged myself to gather these poems together to write a number of new poems in this genre and to shape a book out of them.

11: One of those poems that struck me was Belated, which goes into a certain part of American history that is mostly left out of the text books. Can you speak about that a bit?

PP: The title alludes to the fact that when I knew her, when we were both in high school, it wan not talked about. It’s not only that the Japanese Americans (not each and every one of them but as a whole) didn’t talk about this experience, even within the families. They just didn’t talk about it. Also, I remember learning nothing about the Japanese internment camps in high school social studies. There’s a wonderful book by Lawson Inata, who was my mentor who was the Oregon Poet Laureate before me. He has a wonderful book called Only What We Could Carry, because that’s what the families were allowed

community literary arts

to take with them to the camps, (when I say wonderful, it’s heartbreaking too). That was the definitive book on the camps and the experience of Japanese Americans during World War II. 11: What advice would you give a young poet or writer, or any artist for that matter, who is at odds on whether to pursue their creative impulse with a career in art, or work in a cubicle somewhere?

PP: “Poetry speaks the language of us at our best. When we are the most creative, attentive, responsive. Now we are spoken to in languages of commerce, conversation. Most of the time, the language we are spoken to when someone is trying to get some information across to us. Maybe someone is trying to get our vote. Maybe someone is trying to persuade us in one way or another, are just impart some information to us. But when a poem is good, when a poem is really working, it is speaking to that part of us that we are at our best. Where we are creative, attentive, responsive. So that’s a wonderful endeavor, to work in that realm. That’s what art does. When we write, I think,

we write to create ourselves. To discover moment to moment who we are, who we are becoming. I believe all artists, of all genres are doing that. To turn your back at that -- to not both acknowledge and give yourself, or at least a big part of yourself to that I think is cutting yourself short. Denying that part of you that is the most creative, attentive, responsive. You are snubbing it. turning your back on it. I think that we are much better, in terms of to ourselves, to others around us, to the whole world if we are attending to that. If we are listening to that, responding to that. So I would say: Write, write, write.

Those of you who have that predilection. Say yes to it. Say a thousand yeses to it! And to the musicians, to the dancers, to the sculptors, to the painters. Say yes, say yes. That’s a wonderful part of us, and not a part that we want blunted, or muted, or extinguished. »

Belated

Janice Nakata, May Fete Queen, Honor Roll girl, I'm glad I was once your sister—if only in a high school club playing 1950's grownup with our bids and blackballs and pledge week, our pale organza formals, our long white gloves.

Janice with skin the color spun from wild honey, did you wince at me? —the tall thing one blotched by moles and imperfection, admiring in silence your sweet-spoken ways, your darkest eyes that me our eyes with only kindness.

I must have thought we'd all grown up much like me, with a father exempt from the army because he worked in the shipyards, a father left at home to weld, sealing those giant hulls bound for Pacific seas—a daddy free to build his daughter a wooden stepstool that exact size so she could reach the bathroom sink to brush her teeth, a dad who could drive her to see grandparents in their gabled house just across our tree-shaded city.

Janice Nakata, Beautiful Sister, I ask you now what I did not know to ask you then.

Tell me.

Where—in which makeshift barrack shadowed by high barbed wire—did we imprison your family during the war?

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