Eleven PDX Magazine - July 2019

ISSUE 97 | JUL 2019

ELEVEN PDX ISSUE 2 ELEVEN PDXMAGAZINE MAGAZINE--VOLUME VOLUME 9, 8, ISSUE 5

COMPLIMENTARY COMPLIMENTARY

INSIDE: STEF CHURA | CATE LE BON | KYLE CRAFT | YUNA AAN | PARTY BOYZ | ROBBI RODRIGUEZ | YONG HONG ZHONG

2 | ELEVEN PDX

ELEVEN PDX MAGAZINE VOLUME 9 ◊ ISSUE No. 2

July 2019

THE USUAL 4 Letter from the Editor

FEATURES Local Feature 12 Aan

4 Staff Credits

COLUMNS 5 Aural Fix

Still Woozy Stef Chura Cate Le Bon Drugdealer

Cover Feature 16

Weyes Blood COMMUNITY Meet Your Maker 24

NEW MUSIC 8 Short List 8 Album Reviews Bleached Mal Blum Kyle Craft Yuna

Party Boyz

Literary Arts 26 Robbi Rodriguez

Visual Arts 28

Yong Hong Zhong

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! Well, well, well. Here we are again, dipping our toes in thunderstorm puddles and chasing high heatwaves. Who knows where the summer will take us this year! Well, I know one place it will take me: PDX Pop Now!, Pickathon, and the Portland Blues Festival (which is just around the corner: July 4-7!)

This summer just popped off hot with WW’s Best New Band release show at Mississippi Studios, featuring new band Help and artists Karma Rivera, Kayelaj, and Fountaine. Check them out!

More amazing showcases are just around the corner. If you’ve never been to PDX Pop Now!, it looks like this is a good year to start. Plastic Cactus and ePP (also Best New Bands) will be playing this year, as well as must-sees Adebisi, Brown Calculus, Cry Babe, and more, all performing under the Hawthorne Bridge July 20-21.

Okay, I am definitely not trying to sound like an advertisement, but there’s so much going on! I truly believe in the integrity and power of this city’s music scene and the beautiful community that it creates. The spectrum is broad, it’s so important to be inclusive, to be curious, and to branch out to all realms of sound. Portland is a microcosm of indie rock, psych and surf, punk hardcore, hip hop, chill wave, electronic, R&B, experimental, funk, metal, and… honestly freaking everything. I feel lucky to be surrounded by so many unique sounds, and am even more stoked to get to feature artists that I really believe in.

Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow,

- Eirinn Gragson, Managing Editor

Vinyl Comp Release Party Mississippi Studios July 24th & 25th Live Shirt Printing by

Misplaced Screen Printing

Goods & Services & Shop Mon - Fri | 1pm - 6pm | 1016 NW 17th Ave | Portland, Ore

W W W . M I S P L A C ED S C R EEN P R I N T I N G . C O M

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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 SECTION EDITORS LITERARY ARTS: Scott McHale VISUAL ARTS: Richard Lime CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Liz Garcia, Anthony King, Matthew Sweeney, Nebraska Lucas, Eric Swanson, Matthew Weatherman, Kayleigh O'Malley, Christopher Klarer, Nathan Royster, Charles Trowbridge, Party Mom PHOTOGRAPHERS Mathieu Lewis-Rolland, Katie Summer, Todd Walberg, Michael Reiersgaard COVER DESIGN Katie Silver COVER PHOTO Katie Miller

GENERAL INQUIRIES getinvolved@elevenpdx.com ADVERTISING sales@elevenpdx.com ELEVEN WEST MEDIA GROUP, LLC SPECIAL THANKS To all of our friends and family that make this project possible, and to those that champion tolerance, equality, generosity and kindness in the world. We love you best.

columns aural fix

AURAL FIX

up and coming music from the national scene

1 STILL WOOZY JULY 19 | WONDER BALLROOM What is the most entrancing part about Sven Gamsky, who we know as Still Woozy? Maybe it’s that his music induces both melancholy and happiness, or how he crafts a charmingly imperfect blend of acoustic and electronic, or perhaps the fact that the music Gamsky produces reflects qualities a listener can relate to: like being a little quirky and hating mornings. The Bay Area native creates melodies that follow psychedelic and dreamy electronic beats and funky, retro bass lines.

Gamsky hit the sound waves of SoundCloud with fan favorite “Goodie Bag” in the wake of the bedroom pop phenomenon, alongside other DIY and lo-fi artists such as Clairo, Cuco, and Omar Apollo.

However, Still Woozy is not confined to the bedroom pop genre, and at times his music sounds more like lo-fi hip hop, while other times flaring into R&B and funk. Consistent with Gamsky’s genre-bending scale is the dreaminess factor; there is just something about his music that floats you up to cloud nine.

The multi-instrumentalist got his musical start in math rock band, Feed Me Jack. He left the band to make simpler,

Photo by Kelsey Hart

2 STEF CHURA JULY 30 | MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS Tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. You can either wallow in mediocrity or leave your mark on the world before shuffling off this mortal coil. Of these two options, musician Stef Chura has chosen the latter.

Chura’s musical career started in 2009 when she moved from her hometown of Alpena, Michigan, south to Ypsilanti where she began writing music and playing shows. In 2012, Chura migrated to her current home base of Detroit, pulling double duty in the Motor City’s DIY indie scene: home recording and self-releasing cassettes of her songs while playing bass in a series of local bands.

Photo by Shawheen Keyani

more intimate music of his own. His cheery-meets-melancholic instrumentation and tone is cozy, comforting, and relatable, insinuating that this is what making music is really about for Gamsky. Yet, through his music, he assures fans that things are going to be okay and prompts listeners to get on their feet and dance.

Gamsky surprised fans with a long awaited debut EP, titled

Lately, early in May. The five track EP perfectly embodies the lively energy and genre elusiveness of Gamsky. Lately includes four new songs along with his much loved single “Habit.” “Ipanema” features Omar Apollo and Elujay, who will be the supporting act for Still Woozy’s upcoming tour.

Still Woozy kicks off his headlining three month U.S. tour in July, his first stop being at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland. » – Liz Garcia It wasn’t until the death of a close friend that Chura was inspired to record and release an album proper.

“One of my best friends passed away and I thought, ‘What do I have to do before I die?’” Chura recalls. “I have to at least make one record.”

The result was 2017’s Messes (Urinal Cake Records).

Culling from a dearth of demos and 4-track home recordings, Chura produced Messes' 11 songs with the help of Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me). Messes’ rollicking rollercoaster ride of emotion not only received positive reviews from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Exclaim!, but immediate notice from Saddle Creek Records, which re-released the album the following year.

The depth of Chura’s emotional range imbues her music with both vulnerability and confidence, delivered with unconventionally fluctuating and charged vocal inflections. Like Chrissie Hynde, Kathleen Hanna and Kim Gordon before her, Chura is an artist taking bold risks in indie rock’s current staid climate.

With the release of her latest album, Midnight, Chura and producer Will Toledo (Car Seat Headrest) have elevated her vocals from Messes’ depths. This more pronounced spiky swagger of Chura’s vocals are on full display in songs such as “Scream,” lead single “Method Man” and a cover of Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face,” which, in Chura’s hands, only serves to illustrate how truly bizarre this once Top 40 hit is. Bucket list be damned, two albums in and Stef Chura is already leaving an impressive imprint on the musical landscape. » – Anthony King

elevenpdx.com | 5

columns aural fix

Photo by Ivana Kličković

3 CATE LE BON JULY 12 | DOUG FIR

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Welsh songwriter Cate Le Bon breathes some much-needed ethereal eccentricity into this year’s pop offerings with her leisurely, wry take on folk and pop music. The accomplished songwriter has been something of a fixture in the indie and art pop scene, touring circuits since the late 2000s. Reward is Cate Le Bon’s new album on Brooklyn label Mexican Summer, and is strikingly original, possibly the most thoughtfully-composed pop albums of the year.

Stylistically, Cate Le Bon has all the trappings of a fiercely idiosyncratic craftsperson who is trying to make timeless music, rather than someone making music that sounds like the product of a scene. Her droll voice, which enunciates lyrics (in both English and Welsh) with such a plain and innocent matter-of-factness, always seems to stand perfectly alone, content to be unadorned and occupy a humble space. It is a distinct singing voice in the best way. One could say it evokes Robert Wyatt’s plaintive timbre, which sounds so strangely fragile the first few times you hear it, but becomes compelling with a combination of vulnerability and bravery. Le Bon’s unique voice fits well with the intricate, leisurely arrangements that house it, favoring saxophones, unconventional percussion, and the piano to give a minimal, organic ambience.

Le Bon’s calming voice often disguises hidden depths, such as the brooding and meditative song off Reward, “Here it Comes Again,” where the narrator urges us again and again to “set in a frame” a series of downcast, ghostly images that reflect their soul’s melancholy. “Half-draped eyes in a liquid night fall apart anew, too,” they remind us. Much of Le Bon’s music seems to comment on solitude and loneliness. And yet, it excels at keeping a light tone that doesn’t sound overly sad as it lays out gently philosophical images and ideas like “love neglected by reward” (“Miami” aims high for a song with so few actual words). There needs to be more pop like this in the world. » – Matthew Sweeney

columns aural fix Photo by Richard Quintero

7/3 KULULULU !MINDPARADE SALO PANTO 7/5 DIRTY ART CLUB SHADOWGRAPHS WAVE ACTION 7/6 CULTURE ABUSE TONY MOLINA YOUNG GUV DARE REGIONAL JUSTICE CENTER 7/8 TIMECOP1983 ARCADE HIGH KORINE 7/9 FRUIT COCKTAIL SHOWCASE: BOCHA BURHON NASSIR DONTE THOMAS FOUNTAINE • KI$ MARCUS MCCAULEY SCOOTY • SXLXMXN YOUNGSHIRTMAYNE SPECIAL GUESTS

4 DRUGDEALER JULY 31 | MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS There is nothing comparable to the vastness of Raw Honey.

Released by Drugdealer—a band/music collective started by L.A.-native, Michael Collins—the album defies all archetype.

Collins, enlisting the expertise of various reknowned musicians, filters through seemingly disparate musical influences easily— transitioning from eerie, ethereal folk to smooth, lounge-inspired jazz to blissful soundscapes in mere minutes. Raw Honey is a narrative, a subtle ode mirroring the musical influences of each Drugdealer member. Traces of The Pogues’ “Summer In Siam” are found in the melodic introductory track, “You’ve Got To Be Kidding;” while the fourth track, “Lost In My Dream,” has a similar piano interlude to the Beatles hit, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.”

Each track represents a unique and independent style. “Wild Motion” blends traditional shoegaze with a Southwestern twang, while the sensual vocals on the second track, “Honey,” conjure memories of Nico’s earlier folk sound.

The result is an album that is notably complex, dimensional, and engaging. Each song is as impressive as its precedent—with the most notable being “Fools,” the fifth track. Unlike other tracks, which each emphasize an artist’s personal wheelhouse, “Fools” is a product of the collective as a whole. With a catchy, jazzy piano and 70’s-inspired vocals, the climax of Raw Honey is a summery tune that blends the individual artists’ influences with the talent of Drugdealer as a whole.

Fans of Steely Dan will find comfort in fifth track, “Fools,” a warm, groovy tune with crisp and funky guitar interludes, dance-y background piano, and folk-inspired vocals.

The final track, aptly named “Ending On A Hi Note,” is a minute and a half-long dreamy instrumental soundscape. A perfect conclusion to Raw Honey, the track provides the space to appreciate the complexity of the full album. » – Nebraska Lucas

7/10 A COLLECTIVE SUBCONSCIOUS CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION X SUNS

7/17 THE RAD TRADS RAINA ROSE TARA VELARDE 7/18 WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS CATHOLIC ACTION 7/18 COOL KIDS PATIO SHOW - 6PM! FREE!

7/20 GYPSY TEMPLE FORTY FEET TALL 7/21 THE SPACE LADY ANCIENT POOLS DRAMA BAHAMA 7/23 DYLAN LEBLANC ERIN RAE 7/24 SCHOOL OF ROCK ALLSTARS

ALL AGES

7/25 A.A. BONDY 7/25 COOL KIDS PATIO SHOW - 6PM! FREE!

7/26 DEAD HORSES MARA CONNOR

7/11 BONES OWENS THE GRIZZLED MIGHTY

7/27 TANGO ALPHA TANGO

7/11 COOL KIDS PATIO SHOW - 6PM!

7/27 CAT HOCH FRINGE CLASS

7/12 CATE LE BON CONSCIOUS SUMMARY

7/31 GOLDEN VESSEL INSTUPENDO • LEO ISLO

FREE!

SOLD OUT!

7/16 BOB SCHNEIDER CAROLINA STORY

7/13 THE LAVENDER FLU WHITE ALPS • MOTRIK 7/15 YARDSSS ∅∀‡ U SCO THE SOCIAL STOMACH

PICKIN’ ON SUNDAYS

LIVE MUSIC ON THE PATIO! 3 PM! FREE! 7/14 DEAD LEE 7/21 THE STUBBORN LOVERS 7/28 SIOBHAN WILSON

(503) 231-WOOD ALL SHOWS 21+ 830 E. BURNSIDE SERVING BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER & LATE NIGHT HAPPY HOUR 3-6 EVERYDAY & 10PM-12AM SUN-THURS TICKETS AND MORE INFO AT DOUGFIRLOUNGE.COM

elevenpdx.com | 7

new music album reviews

ALBUM REVIEWS THIS MONTH’S BEST

R REISSUE

L LOCAL RELEASE

Short List

L

Thandii Serious Town EP Drab Majesty Modern Mirror Penelope Isles Until the Tide Creeps In Tycho Weather Sugar Ray Little Yachy Strange Ranger Remembering the Rockets Mono/poly Monotomic Cuco Para Mí E-40 Practice Makes Paper B Boys Dudu Sum 41 Order In Decline Glitterer TLooking Through The Shades BJ the Chicago Kid 1123

Buy it

Stream it

Disagree? Scold us: @ELEVENPDX

8 | ELEVEN PDX

Toss it

Bleached Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?

Dead Oceans Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough? by L.A.-based Bleached is an album of commitments: to sisterhood, to sobriety, to living honestly. A hard and bittersweet look in the mirror, the Clavin sisters, (Jennifer writing lyrics for vocals, and Jessie on guitar, among other instruments), don’t hold back any punches—or hooks—as they serenade about struggles with self-sabotage while

rocking out to a newfound sense of self-love.

Runaway opener, “Heartbeat Away” sets the tone and energy for the album’s twelve-track victory lap. Although, that’s not to say that the victory comes easy.

Arguably their most raw and ambitious album to date, it’s precisely the sisters’ head-on grappling with the past that gives each song a sense of purpose—be it self-criticism: “Rebound City” and “Daydream,” or self-encouragement: “Hard to Kill” and “Awkward Phase."

Revisiting some of the more YOLO and escapist themes of past LPs,

Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough? manages to create something new from embracing and reframing the sisters’ past rather than condemning it. Producer Shane Stoneback (Vampire Weekend, Sleigh Bells) leaves just the right amount of fingerprints to help the sisters’ story shine and stand on its own while still capitalizing on previously untouched sonic opportunities. The Clavin’s have never sounded more confident, in-sync, or summer car stereo-approved. » – Eric Swanson artist from New York, hits home with pop-punk style guitar chords, gentle folk-like riffs, and a catchy indie pop structure.

Blum’s lyrics are poignant and poetic, reminiscent of DIY readings in a punk house basement. The songs serve as a personal narrative for a character who is falling in and out of love, trapped in bad habits, trying to break those habits, and falling apart tenderly.

Mal Blum Pity Boy Don Giovanni Records Mal Blum’s music lies somewhere between nostalgic emotional narrative lyrics, like Bright Eyes, and vocal cadence and pop tones of Kimya Dawson.

Still wildly unique in their own right, Blum personifies agonizing age-old struggles like “we’re all gonna die” and “relationships are beautiful and also messy.” Pity Boy, the most recent album (and second release on Don Giovanni Records) by the non-binary transgender

Pity Boy has a knack for touching on the endearing reality of co-dependency and unhealthy relationships, while still acknowledging the dynamic notions of how sweet they can be, like in the track “Salt Flats”: “Now you’ve got salt in your hair/ I’ve got salt on my face/ You rub salt in my wounds/ Then you lick them away.”

But the album is far from a generic pop lovestorm. While some tracks, like “See Me,” (“Why can’t they see me?/ I’m right here,”) may ring louder to transgender audiences, Blum sings in an ultimately universal language, touching on how confusing love can be, existence as a whole, and existential quandaries of dying alone. » – Eirinn Gragson

new music album reviews

L Kyle Craft

Showboat Honey Sub Pop

If you haven’t heard of Kyle Craft, it is fair to say you’ve probably heard of some of the legends he often gets compared to: John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Harry Nilsson, and Patti Smith, to name a few. His sound isn’t an imitation of those influences, rather a contemporary compilation of familiar sounds, instantly nostalgic. To hear the evolution of his voice, check out Craft’s first album released on Sub Pop in 2016, Dolls of

Yuna Rouge UMG / Verve Forecast Records Rouge, the newest release by Malaysian singer-songwriter Yuna, is a summer album for the brokenhearted. The songs take you to the tip of the happiness threshold, or as happy as one is allowed to be whilst in the midst of heartbreak. It's the kind of music that hits close enough to home to make you feel like you’ve made progress getting over an ex-lover, only to find yourself resonating a bit too hard with the lyrics and swimming in feelings.

Highland, a DIY rock n’ roll masterpiece.

On this upcoming album, Showboat Honey, piano player Kevin Clark and bassist Billy Slater produced with Craft.

Together, with Haven Multz on drums, Ben Steinmetz on organ and Jeremy Kale on lead guitar, these Portland friends are Showboat Honey, Craft’s tight knit backing band. The title appears in the track, “Buzzkill Caterwaul,” “Once you were the talk of the town/ (oh) Once you were the showboat honey/ But your ship sailed out,” a line that invokes the specter of fleeting fame. Having been the darling of the moment when his solo debut was first released, Craft clearly shows that he has more to offer than just being that guy with wild hair that sounds like someone else. He has a range and depth that is showcased beautifully on this new album, his third on Sub Pop, and first as Kyle Craft & Showboat Honey.

Preceding the album release, the band has already given the world three music videos: “Deathwish Blue,” “Broken Mirror Pose,” and “2 Ugly 4 NY.” In

“Deathwish Blue,” Craft and his fiancé dance around a closed restaurant in a nod to the twist contest from Pulp Fiction.

The video captures a vulnerability and tenderness mirrored in the heartfelt lyrics of the song.

In “Broken Mirror Pose” Craft and crew rock out in his groovy practice room.

Beautifully rendered, yet consistently eerie, the masked band members are joined by Andy Rayborn (Paper Gates, Kulululu) on saxophone, while a hypnotic bass line drives the song chorus in instant sing-a-long fashion.

“Don't wanna see Death strum for cash downtown:” Kyle dresses up as the grim reaper with a guitar to live out these lyrics in “2 Ugly 4 NY.” He rides past iconic Portland locations on a motorcycle, creeps out a kid waiting for transit, and jaywalks across the Morrison Bridge.

Whether or not Craft is too ugly for New York, he’s perfect for Portland. »

Yuna found her path to fame by believing in her gift enough to share with the world by uploading her music to MySpace. This late ‘00s viral exposure carved some space in the indie-pop world for the now 32-year-old singer-songwriter.

She established her career with some of the best in the biz, like Usher and Pharrell Williams, and cleaned up at the 2008 Malaysian Music Awards taking home multiple trophies. Nearly ten years later, Yuna still holds it down as she dominates the scene with Rouge.

The album starts off with the push and pull of a worried violin on the first cut, “Castaway,” as if the opening score for an Alfred Hitchcock adaptation of a Daphne du Maurier gothic novel. The violin’s woes are soothed by a couple guitar chords that settle in, taking control of the rhythm, soon accompanied by a tickling percussion.

Halfway through this album, Little Simz chimes in with some bars in the friendship anthem, “PinkYouth.” Yuna assembled a few different comrades to compile Rouge: Tyler the Creator, G-Eazy, and KYLE also lent their talents

to the Malaysian modern disco diva — giving their perspectives on tangled relationships.

Yuna threads a sen se of confidence throughout the album: her cross lyrics slice through juicy upbeat kicks in most of her songs, packing a punch capable of sneaking up on those that are victim to heartbreak, hitting hard.

In the second half of the album, Yuna dedicates the track “Likes” to speak to the detrimental components presented in social media. She speaks to the run around that occurs when giving and receiving comments and likes that often leaves people dumbfounded by the connotations.

She prompts the listener to stop and think what liking posts, receiving likes, and digital engagement overall equates to in the non-digital world.

Whether you find yourself grooving to sounds of romance, companionship, or obsession, you're guaranteed to find yourself nestled somewhere along Rouge’s spectrum of relations. » – Kayleigh O'Malley

– Matthew Weatherman

elevenpdx.com | 9

live music

JULY CRYSTAL BALLROOM

1

2 17 22 27 30

1332 W BURNSIDE

Chase Atlantic | Phases Tour | Lauren Sanderson One OK Rock | Weathers Reel Big Fish | Bowling For Soup | Mest MIYAVI State Champs | Mayday Parade | Mom Jeans

THEATER 2 ROSELAND 8 NW 6TH

8 14 19 20 24 25 27 29

The Struts | The Glorious Sons | Pink Slips August Burns Red | Silverstein | Silent Planet Deerhunter | Dirty Projectors CASH CASH Jordan Davis $uicideboy$ | Shoreline Mafia | City Morgue | more Joey Bada$$ | Flatbus Zombies GOJIRA

FIR 3 DOUG 830 E BURNSIDE

3 5 6 8 9 10 12 13 15 16 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 30 31

Kulululu | Mindparade | Salo Panto Dirty Art Club | Shadowgraphs | Wave Action Culture Abuse | Tony Molina | Young Guv | Dare Timecop1983 | Arcade High | Korine Fruit Cocktail | Bocha | Burhon Nassir | more A Collective Subconscious | Cambrian Explosion Cate Le Bon | Conscious Summary The Lavender Flu | White Alps | Motrik Yardsss ∅∀‡ | U SCO | The Social Stomach Bob Schneider | Carolina Story Gypsy Temple | Forty Feet Tall The Space Lady | Ancient Pools | Drama Bahama Dylan LeBlanc | Erin Rae School of Rock AllStars A.A. Bondy Dead Horses | Mara Connor Tango Alpha Tango Cat Hoch | Fringe Class PBR Sound Society: Gifted Gab | Karma Rivera Golden Vessel | Instupendo | Leo Islo

4 3 5 6 7 10 11 12 13 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS 3939 N MISSISSIPPI

Merō | Prolly Knot | Ryan Oxford

The Builders and the Butchers | Loch Lomond | Help

Speaker Minds | Adebisi | Arietta Ward The Invisible Hands | Alvarius B. Kelly Finnigan & The Atonements | The Get Ahead Kyle Craft & Showboat Honey | Weezy Ford The Joy Formidable | Warbly Jets Mississippi Street Fair After-Party Whitmer Thomas Greyhounds | Star Crusher Greyhounds | Star Crusher This Is The Kit | Gillian Frances Mystic Braves | Plastic Cactus | Souvenir Driver The Deer | Small Leaks Sink Ships | Johanna Warren

Will West & The Friendly Strangers | Groovy Wallpaper Michigander | Melville

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live music

JULY MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS 3939 N MISSISSIPPI

4

Sarah Shook and the Disarmers | Redwood Son Aan | Laura Palmer's Death Parade | Michael Finn New Move | Tribe Mars | Dan Dan Drunken Prayer | Chuck Westmoreland | Redray Frazier Grizfolk | Laura Jean Anderson I Draw Slow | The Horsenecks Stef Chura | French Vanilla | Mr. Wong Drugdealer | Donny Benet

WONDER BALLROOM 128 NE RUSSELL

23 24 25 26 27 28 30 31

5

Jawbox | Helms Alee 10 Still Woozy | Elujay 19 A Tribe Called Red 21

Frank Iero & The Future Violents | Geoffrey Rickly 23

HOLOCENE

1001 SE MORRISON

6

3 5 6 10 11 12 13 14 16 17 18 Slay: Hip Hip Dance Party for LGBTQ+, People of Color and Allies 20 Gloden Retriever | Holland Andrews | Mojave Bird 25 ARCOPDX 5TH Anniversary Concert 26 Colin Jenkins | Charts | Jame Checks vs Stripes Tribute Night Blow the Whistle Brown Calculus | Just Pretend | Omari Jazz Miss Rayon | Mini Blinds | Cay is Okay Dance Yourself Clean Playdate Puppeteers for Fears: Cattle Mutilation: The Musical The Month: Portland Poetry Slam Yeek Greaterkind | Seance Crasher | Kileo

RONTOMS

600 E BURNSIDE

7

Nasalrod | Dirty Princess 7 Bryson Cone | Pool Boys 14

KELLY'S OLYMPIAN 426 SW WASHINGTON

8

Party Damage DJs (Tuesdays) KPSU DJs (Wednesdays)

All Hype | Pyrite Sidewalk | The Fauxriginals | Easy-A Human Ottoman | Token Girl | ERINA The Thesis Drunken Discourse Forgotten Fantasies: EwTube Nothing in the Dark KayelaJ Cindy Jollatta Synchro-Niss With Me Krill Image | Elly Swope | AV Futures True Primitives | Black Nite Crash | more Creature Party | Dinner Time (ATL) | Mantis Dusty the Gorilla New Jangles | Hard Times (SLC) | Lazy Universe A 90’s Summer Dream

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elevenpdx.com | 11

features JULY

9

1 13 17 18

POLARIS HALL

635 N KILLINGSWORTH CT

Priests | Sons Of An Illustrious Father | Collate Tyler Ramsey | Carl Broemel Roselit Bone | Lavender Country Rebirth Brass Band

REVOLUTION HALL 10 1300 SE STARK 9 10 12 13 16 23

Low Bar Chorale

Voices of a People's History - A Movement of Moments

Rob Bell - An Introduction of Joy Frankie Quinones The Adventure Zone Graphic Novel Live!

Country Music: A Conversation w/ Ken Burns & Julie Dunfey

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

5 7 13 18 19 21 30

The Chuck Israels Nextet (Wednesdays)

Pretty Gritty Rob Larkin & Friends feat. The Wayward Ones WAX! Them Coulee Boys | M. The Heir Apparent Aaron Baca | Bright Raven | Mama Caught Fire Caspar | Inan Moon Jeremy Ferrara | Luke Hogan | MAITA

Photo by Eirinn Gragson

LOCAL FEATURE

B THE SECRET SOCIETY 13 116 NE RUSSELL Honky Tonk (Tuesdays) Zydeco (Wednesdays) Swing (Thursdays) The Inaugural Alchemy Victorian Ball The Hot Tub Time Machine Tribute Night to Radiohead, Muse and Nirvana Melao de Cuba Salsa Orchestra Tia Brazda

5 6 10 13 20 23 Laryssa Birdseye| Alycia Lang | Strange and the Familiars 27 Rick Bain & the Genius Position (Album) | Daystar | more

WHITE EAGLE 14 836 N RUSSELL 2 3 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 13

Open Bluegrass Jam (Thursdays) 21 Turns Band Moriah Domby | Nate Botsford The Brothers Jam | Ryan Barber and the Riches David Pollack | Jon Meyer The Gospel Hooligans LIAM | Matt Shulte | Rhythm | Jesse Daniel Edwards E. Wayne Jones | Crowdaddy decker. | Rupe & Rose | Leo London Trouble Cuts | Gin & Tillyanna JM Long | Lanessa Long | Laugh Queens

12 | ELEVEN PDX

by Christopher Klarer

Aan

ud Wilson has been releasing wild technicolor indie rock under the monicar Aan for over 10 years now. In that time, he and a revolving cast of bandmates have released three fulllength records, each a cathartic exploration of the darker side of Wilson’s psyche while he navigated personal hardships around love, self-acceptance and death. Each record feels like a more finely honed expression of his musical vision, culminating with Aan’s most recent offering, Losing My Shadow, out on Fresh Selects last month. The new record features washes of synth that soften the hard edges of the band’s usually erratic song structures. It’s dense, with subtle production flourishes, making it apparent that a lot of time and love went into turning each song into its own little universe.

ELEVEN: Has mining such personal territory for lyrical content ever complicated personal relationships with people who served as source material?

Bud Wilson: It hasn't damaged any relationships that I'm aware of, but my mom just heard it, and she was like, "Well, now that you have all that stuff out of your system, maybe you can write some less complicated music." The songs on Losing My Shadow are less about romantic relationships, they're more about the relationship I have with myself. I'm shining a harsh light on a lot of the things that irritate or scare me about myself. It's kind of an examination of my own mortality and realizing that we're not here for very long. I've been thinking a lot about all the dumb shit you do that can be really fun, but can also end up screwing you over if you're not monitoring it.

11: Like what?

BW: Drinking, doing drugs... just being really sad all the time. That

features stuff can be really destructive because you never cut yourself a break. I try to hold myself to a pretty high standard, but I don't always impress myself. I use music as an examination of all the icky shit, all the black, goopy feelings.

I'm trying to get all that out, and once I do, I'll feel better... I think.

11: What kind of icky shit were you processing on this record?

BW: I was dealing with my Dad passing and a relationship that ended a couple years ago. Back then it was almost like looking at a tidal wave. I could see that my life was going to change, but I didn't know how. I just knew it was going to get kinda dark for a little bit. I may always be processing some of that stuff. I may just be designed to be a little bummed out but also pretty stoked sometimes. It's a rollercoaster.

11: Does writing about such personal stuff ever make you feel vulnerable?

BW: Not usually. Like, not here with you, but I had a weird interaction with a friend the other day where he was like, "Well, I definitely know what you're dealing with now that I listened to your record." I just thought, "I don't even know what I'm dealing with.

What am I dealing with?" Part of me wanted to ask him, but I was scared to know how he interpreted it. It's a little weird having my mom hear it. It's personal. It's a very personal record. It's some very serious shit that I said, and I don't know if everyone likes stuff like that. But I don't give a shit. I just want to make someone feel something, even if it makes them feel a little uncomfortable.

11: Feeling uncomfortable is better than feeling nothing.

BW: Exactly.

11: With a couple of records under your belt, was this one easier to bring to life? Or was there added pressure to top what

you’d already done?

BW: Each record has had its own mission. The first one was full of pressure because it was a long time coming. It took almost three years to finish. I worked with Jeff Bond, who was a relatively new producer, and he wanted to come out with something strong, and so did I. So we took our time. That was the best I could personally do at the time as a musician. When we made the next record, Dana [Valatka], Travis [Leipzig], and my friend Gabe [Nardin] all went into the studio and tracked that shit live. I liked that record, but there ended up being a lot of little things I wanted to change about it if we had more time. We intentionally gave ourselves these parameters to get it done as fast as we could.

The producer we were working with was touring a lot so we'd have these little windows to work with.

When Cameron Spies and I sat down to make this record, we decided, "Let's not worry about how long this takes. Let's just make this really interesting to listen to." The goal from the beginning was to make you want to listen to it again.

There are all sorts of little toys in there, and we took a lot of time to craft the songs as best as we could.

Cameron [Spies] and I would take pinball breaks for lunch and end up coming back a little saucy and listen to what we did and either be like, "Oh shit! That was sick!" Or be like, "Ew... that wasn't it."

11: What did you see in Cameron Spies as a producer that made you tap him for Losing My Shadow?

BW: He just has excellent pop sensibilities. Also, I don't have any synths, and I knew I wanted to add a lot of synths to this record.

He's a great synth player and can just find really tasty tones that we would comb through together. On a lot of the record I don't remember if he was playing synth or if I was because we would work through stuff so fluidly. He's also good at getting good performances out without being pushy. It was a healthy relationship where he'd

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help me make sure I'm getting the best vocal take I could at that time, or he'd look at some lyrics and be like, "Hmm. What else you got?"

11: With a studio project you have freedom to do things that require a different type of listening than you'd expect from people in a live setting. Have you had to rework any songs or drop them from the live set because they work better as a recording than as a live performance?

BW: It doesn't really scare me to play anything live. We'll go for it.

We're going to play all the songs on this record. The only reason we'd choose not to play a song live if it's kind of boring to play. Actually, I feel like some of the more upbeat songs end up being the more boring ones to play. The slower, more intimate songs translate really well to a live setting.

11: How did you guys get hooked up with Fresh Selects?

They've got a pretty large, diverse catalogue.

BW: It's definitely diverse, especially now that they put us on

there. I like the idea of being on a label that's not just indie rock. It exposes us to a different audience.

I first found out about them when Hosannas signed with them for a release last year. Party Damage put out our first two records, they're defunct now, but when I sent them our record they were like, "I think I know someone who would really dig this." They set up a meeting for us and we all sat down and I was like, "I have no clue how this is going to go." Then at the end of the meeting, Kenny Fresh was like, "OK, let's do it." There's even this new artist Trox on the label who's going to remix a few pieces for us.

11: Does it worry you to relinquish control of something you made like that?

BW: I'm actually happy someone's interested, and I think it will be interesting to hear it taken in a completely different direction.

11: Ten years is a long run for a project in Portland. What kind of lessons have you learned over the years?

BW: I don't know what I've

features learned... I guess I've learned how the industry works to some degree.

I've learned how to make music I want to make from a production standpoint. I've learned that it's important to have really solid players in the band so I can just focus on what I'm doing and not have to worry about how other people perform. These guys honestly set a high bar and make me have to be better.

It doesn't feel like what we do in Aan has changed a ton over the

Aan Losing My Shadow Fresh Selects Portland based Aan, made up of Bud Wilson and a rotating cast of musicians (currently Travis Liepzig, Andy Lawson, Dana Valatka and Eddie Bond), are on their third album in 10 years. Dada Distractions (2016) took note from psychedelic garage-rock with mild sludge and a mournful undertone. Their newest album, Losing My Shadow, (featuring Cameron Spies, Travis Leipzig, and Dana Valatka alongsize Wilson) appears to be a sunnier endeavor, one that could be interpreted as pop as it shuffles super clean falsetto hooks and immaculate vocal tones, crafting a sharp catchy abstraction. This time around, there’s an immediate gratification by placing that proximal cleanliness with psychedelic abstraction (think wah-wahs and echo-effects). Deftly detailed in production and mixing, Aan’s newest album presents itself as a piece of aural craft.

course of the last three records, but it took a long time to figure out how we were supposed to sound before that first record. I'm definitely starting to feel older now, though.

Sometimes I'm like, "Is this what I'm supposed to be doing?" It's been an interesting ride in this town for sure, to know a bunch of people in the community and to have traveled and toured and met bands from all over the rest of the country. I just love doing it. »

The titular title track “Losing My Shadow” denotes in-studio strengths with two distinct parts.

The five-plus minute trip starts with an astral synth, disorienting between the right and left channels as Wilson joins in singing, “As time fell flat I crept in decay/I was lost in the haze/ my days drifted away,” accompanied by a galloping snare drum and pulsing bass. Each instrument stays discernable and crystalline in the swirling, even around the three and a half minute mark, when the tempo drops, drums start to lag, and the bass frays. Here, the song sublimates into an outline of its initial sound.

“Falling” washes listeners away with Wilson’s ascending vocals, layered over themselves and fading out, fighting for attention. Barely discernible, the focus piques up to the chorus, where vocals break through to the hook in a moment of clarity: “I get the feeling that I’m high/ and falling”. “Born A Sucker” stands out in energy (“I know you love me but you’re only going to hold me back”) powered by an unassuming guitar jerk that once moves forward into “I Don’t Want to Be Alone,” which is packed with vulnerable lull and lyrics (“It’s like out of thin air/ I’m erased and no one's there”), both being bolstered higher in their respected sentiments.

Equalizing an album’s catchiness with depth is rare: “Mistakes” prescribes “Don’t ever lose your glow.”

And that might just be a mantra. » - Nathan Royster

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by Charles Trowbridge photo by Katie Miller live photos by Pierre Dauwe

FEATURES Titanic Rising, the latest album from Natalie Mering, AKA Weyes Blood, can be defined by its lush, orchestral melodies counterbalanced with moments of spare, wrenching introspection. But, from a greater perspective, these touches are indicative of the encompassing ethos with which Mering makes her music. Her strength is in finding moments of delicacy within grand settings of reflective musing.

It’s not surprising that Mering’s production feels like sitting in a celestial cathedral. Coming from a conservative, Christian background, Mering spent many hours connected to beautiful, contrapuntal hymnals and traditional non-secular song structures. Her albums, decidedly secular, bathe listeners in gentle chording and reverential, soaring vocal lines full of existential lyricism; it is a match both in style and substance.

While Mering’s compositions range from the truly dramatic to the personally touching, she has trained her message on the greater state of things. Climate change takes a prominent place on Titanic Rising. She raises questions about how we relate to each other and the world, tacitly imploring fellow humans to reconsider the individualistic, ephemeral approach to existence that has resulted in truly negative impacts across the globe.

Still, as serious as Mering is about her message, her skill as a composer means listeners can easily slip into comfortable (albeit emotionally intense) space, while waves of sound wash over.

ELEVEN talked with Mering about her origins, why she chooses to make music with such a powerful message, and how

Titanic Rising mirrors the state of the world today.

ELEVEN: You’re supporting the Titanic Rising album, and I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the influences that you've discussed publicly. I know that this has kind of been tabbed as a climate change kind of activism-based album.

What is one of the most impactful things that you've seen so far arise out of the work that you've done with the album?

Natalie Mering: I don't think anybody knows what to do. If you're not already an environmentalist involved in the activism, I don't see any crossover from my generation. I find my generation is generally kind of drowning in their own confusion about what it is they could do. I think people have commented about it, maybe emotionally kind of helping them feel a little better about just using conceptual terms to express the kind of sorrow that this kind of existential stuff brings. I also don't go online and kind of look at what my fans are doing. You know?

So, I can't say that anything has happened, but I do get to meet people. I've met people who run environmentalist organizations, personally, who have heard the record. So, in some way, that is the beginning of a connection, and like a seed for me to do stuff and kind of get more involved in the activism Photo by Pierre Dauwe

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portion of it. I think my fans just think it's beautiful music. I'm not trying to talk down on them. I don't blame them. I don't know how I would find out about what they were doing, you know?

11: Are you sort of rooted in activism music or socially conscious art?

NM: No. I'm peripheral to that. I have a conservative Republican family, so I am the only liberal. Well, I mean my brother is too, but no. I come from the other side of the tracks where I kind of am navigating that territory for the first time and exploring it. I did Occupy Wall Street. I've done some protests and things like that, but I'm always trying to navigate what we can do to change the people [who are] middle of the road and really change the hearts of the people like my family: more conservative people who are kind of being brainwashed.

So, yeah, I don't have a history with this at all, I'm way more interested in not trying to speak for a bunch of people.

11: What were your goals in making the album, artistically, creatively, and from an audience perspective?

NM: Yeah, I do think that I was trying to provide some kind of emotional nourishment and comfort amidst the existential crisis that we face. I spend so much of my time writing songs and singing and playing music, I would say it is a call to action in terms of making people aware of what's going on.

But also, I think it was more to kind of soothe people's fear and anxiety over the whole debacle. I just don't want to overstep my boundaries in terms of what I do best, which is writing songs.

The goal was more of an emotional goal.

11: Do you feel like in the current state of affairs that maybe art has a bigger role than it's had in a long time, in terms of providing that peace of mind or that opportunity to really find something positive and not just be disenfranchised?

NM: Yeah. No, I think that right now we kind of need poetry and that kind of interpretive force more than ever. I really think that mythology and different things throughout our history can provide a psychological guide map on how we can experience being human without suffering tremendously. And, so, I feel like, ultimately, even if it is a form of escapism, music aspires to kind of transcend the mundane, the everyday life, and into something a little bit more meaningful and universal. So, I do think it becomes really important in times like these where people are trying to find truth and meaning in a constantly shifting world where there's a lot of stuff and changes that we haven't really caught up to yet. So yeah, I think that religions, in their own right, are kind of on their way out and we've created a religion even if it is kind of painted by capitalism of music and movies and TV and things to help us escape.

11: One of the things that I saw listening to this album is it kind of sounds like, in a way, it's an existential breakup

album, almost in terms of lyrical content and the way that the instrumentals unfold. There's a lot of ethereal aspects, but then there's a lot of really well grounded, dominant chording.

Did you have an intended outcome as you were making this or was there something that clicked along the way?

NM: I think I wanted to try to make something that was very much specific to my generation and people around my age range, and also universally, people from all different ages. But I just think that we live in such an interesting time with such an interesting set of circumstances, it'd be a shame to make music that doesn't try to incorporate all the new paradigm shifts; whether it be cell phone technology or the fact that we were basically raised on movies, and that they are a point of initiation into society as basically having our own bedrooms, hanging up posters on our wall and coming up with very naive imaginary ideas about what the world is like. I wanted that all to come out, and that relationship with history and how there's nothing really new under the sun even though it feels so specific and so different from millennials trying to weave it back into other time periods where similarly, the hubris of man was making a confused reality for a lot of people.

11: Do you see parallels between what's happening right now and what was happening back in the ‘60s in terms of feeling like the country or the people are being pushed toward this more individualistic viewpoint? I've read some comparisons with you, a little bit to Joni Mitchell – I don't know if you like that or not, but she’s in a similar vein. Are these things that you think about actively?

NM: Yeah, I do think about the parallels. I think that we're still living in that; I mean the Boomers, they're still alive. Like they're old, but I think they still kind of are ruling the roost in terms of being the biggest generation and kind of the generation that rode maybe on the biggest wave of natural resources also.

These days I tend to focus more on the differences. I think we don't really have, as musicians, the same kind of careers that people then had. I think we might be living in a time where the artist is somewhat disposable and the machinery itself is kind of the longstanding legendary thing. Well, I think back then it was more based on personalities and there was a little bit more of an innovation and kind of like chaos, wild west style to the music industry because everything was new.

We've really settled into our ways and you can kind of see it, like some of the biggest labels also tend to be the most conservative. They will only promote something that ticks off the five capitalistic check boxes that they assume will make them more money, which wasn't the case in the ‘60s. I think in the ‘60s there were record executives who didn't understand young people who are like, "Well, I guess if they like this then we should put it out."

So, I think there's been a lot of things that have shifted and changed that would make recreating something like the ‘60s impossible. But inevitably, I think we're still trying to do what the Baby Boomers might've done unsuccessfully, which is really

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eradicate once and for all the part of America that is really vile and racist. Just, it's kind of like nothing's really changed. Well, nothing's really changed in terms of that. I think a lot of things have changed in terms of our lifestyles. You know?

11: You mentioned some of the conservativism of record labels and you’ve said before that you believed in the ethos of Sub Pop. I'm wondering, as your musical career has kind of progressed and as you've grown as an artist, is that something that you feel like you have the luxury to be more attuned to?

Or was this just kind of like a happenstance, like right place, right time, right fit kind of opportunity?

NM: I've always been a big fan of Sub Pop since I was like 14 and it was definitely a big dream of mine to be on their label, but I've never reached out to them. I kind of just had to do my own thing and put out three records before they reached out to me.

Once they did, I felt extremely... full circle. Very, very excited.

Humbled.

11: I'm curious about the musicality and the instrumentals on the album. They sound really lush and beautiful – they're not ethereal without having a point. As you were making this album, did you feel like there were any kind of chances that you wanted to take, musically?

NM: Yeah, I think I wanted to make it kind of match my emotions towards reality, which is pretty grandiose and kind of larger than life. I wanted to use strings and other symphonic elements that I haven't been able to use before, to make it feel like the soundtrack to the times or whatever. And I think, yeah, I definitely had ambitions for some of the more ambient sound effects to try to make it fit into the kind of “underwater, last night on the Titanic” feel.

There was another composer named Gavin Briars who actually wrote a piece called “The Sinking of the Titanic,” which was very inspirational. We would play it in the studio sometimes to – it's like a two-and-a-half-hour ambient piece. In real time, to how long it took the Titanic to sink. There's just something so, so moody about it. I still like using ingredients like that.

Like, something that doesn't have words and is a little bit more abstract to kind of paint the picture with the songs and the words.

11: Do you enjoy the challenge of having to add more layered instrumentation when you're composing and putting your songs together? Is that something that you've looked forward to doing and growing?

NM: Yeah, always. But, you can go the wrong direction.

Sometimes less is more. It's really an outcome and you're kind of constantly being like, "Well, does it need that?" Or, "Is it fine or should it..." There's always this desire to add too much, so you’ve got to keep yourself in check.

elevenpdx.com | 21 Photo by Pierre Dauwe

FEATURES 11: Do you have an example in mind of when that happened on the album as you were working on it where you had something big and then you decided, "Ah, it just needs kind of like a lighter touch here"?

NM: Yeah, I'm trying to think of the song that needed the lightest touch. What did we end up muting the most of? I think in the song “Movies” there was so much sculpting going on because it is such a kind of amorphous, ambient song that we spent a lot of time muting certain things to make it minimal but effective.

So, finding the things that were absolutely essential and kind of cutting out anything that made it too dense. That one was probably the most combed over, but we added more. There was more on that song and it didn't make it to the record.

11: Are there any songs on the album that maybe while you were creating and laying out the album you liked but you didn't really love, and then as you've gone back to it they’ve become your favorite?

NM: You know what? Not exactly. I cut like two songs off the album so those were the sleeper songs and they're gonna maybe come out as bonus material. But I did feel maybe like “Mirror Forever” was the least fun to record, but one of the more fun ones to play live. That song has kind of a new life of its own now that I play it live. But recording, it was hard for me because it was an older song and about things I didn't want to think about anymore. It's hard to explain your emotions to your own songs, but I felt like that one has a new life of its own now that I'm playing it live.

11: As you are performing the new album live, do you feel like it's something that needs to be performed in its entirety because it is a little bit of a concept album or when you're performing, do you find that there are other songs from your catalog that fit in? What's your process like for putting together your live performances?

NM: I like to mix them. I do a little bit from my last record.

I don't do anything before Front Row Seat To Earth because it's just too throw back or something. But I occasionally play “Bad Magic” as an encore, an older song which still fits into the whole new thing. There's not so many songs on Titanic Rising. All the songs are really long, so we just usually do that and usually some cover song. I really like doing a cover song, too.

11: What's your favorite song to cover and what's the one that you really want to cover but you haven't quite figured out how to make it your own yet?

NM: Right now we're doing “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys. It's been such an emotional song. It's been great to cover.

My ultimate cover dream would be ”A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum, but it's actually incredibly difficult. It's such a subtle, deep vocal performance, but someday I'd love to cover that one.

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11: If there's one thing that you would like to leave people with after they've gone through the new album, maybe from a musical perspective and then from a larger conversation perspective, what do you want people to walk away thinking about?

NM: Well, I would hope that the people could get swept up in the drama of the music and that the music could fulfill its purpose of recontextualizing emotions and our experiences of modern reality into something very universal and beautiful.

Also, I think generally, I hope the album would provide some kind of semblance of hope that we can make art and we can have something to say about the existential landscape that we face.

Then, hopefully, those things are going to motivate us to get out of bed and keep trying to change things, and not lose hope and become too wrapped up in the dystopian doomsday views, you know?

I do think that there are things that I am working on that are a little bit more directly linked to climate activism, but I can't really talk solely about them yet. It's like I'm just meeting with certain people and starting to get some collaborations with people that are more politically involved, because as a musician I kind of tour and operate on such an artistic musical level that I'm still learning about that side of things. But yeah, I look forward to that being more part of the future.

There is a ground swelling, even if it is an emotional one to kind of look in the mirror and be like, "Wow, we really have an inconceivable amount of existential work to do to keep from getting too depressed by the news that we read." And that's a great challenge, I think that a lot of people are kind of stepping up to the plate more than ever before and paying attention.

11: There was something that you had mentioned before, which is there is still sort of a generational divide and maybe the older generation aren't the people that are going to be immediately activated, but some of the younger people and the younger generation, as they become a little bit more empowered. You know, the kind of art that they're growing up with that is potentially going to push them in the direction to be a little bit more bought in, even if it's not just immediately, "Okay, put down your headphones and go out and start a nonprofit.”

NM: Yeah, yeah. I think Greta Thunberg is the all-star of this movement. That's why I said the people that are doing the most for this are teenagers in Europe, and it's true. You know? I think that's no surprise because I think that they kind of have this level of energy that a lot of millennials who are just kind of in the rat race, kind of scraping to survive, can't really have.

So, I don't think it's any coincidence that teenagers are on fire and doing stuff. I think it's just a matter of hope and kind of healing, getting the older generation to step out of their rat race and their rat wheels. Because literally, I think a lot of people are functioning on that level right now. Just kind of scraping by. »

live Weyes Bloodatplays Wonder Ballroom 8/17/19

elevenpdx.com | 23

MEET YOUR MAKER Party Boyz by Party Mom

Portland infamous, Elizabeth Elder (PB1,

music booker, Lose Yr Mind founder) and Rachel Milbauer (PB2, TLE Marketing Manager) are familiar faces around town - it is 99.95% likely you’ve run into them at a show. Party Mom interviewed the Party Boys at a secret hot tub location for a wet and wild tell all.

industry already. We got kind sick of the homogenized interview. And it was like "Cool. Here's another album cycle, here's another release coming up", all this shit. And that was boring. It was the same question over and over again. Bands were bored. Where is the band actually coming from. What is the day to day grind like?

PB1: We just want to have a regular conversation. We just want to hear what you're actually like and get to know you. And form that bond even stronger up like what's going on in Portland and beyond.

PB1: Yeah, we invited bands over to our house and we would cook with them,

Photo by Ingrid Renan

Party Mom: So, tell me what Party Boyz is, for those of us that don't know.

PB1 (Elizabeth Elder): It started as a podcast really.

PB2 (Rachel Milbauer): And then we added zine too.

And then we started throwing parties. We’re just are good at throwing parties.

Mom: And why are you so good at throwing parties?

PB2: Well, we've been through a lot ... we met going to shows.

PB1: We were active members of the music community and we like to support that. And also we're both really into art culture, community in general. And that's what Party Boyz attempts, is to put a magnifying glass to that.

PB2: Yeah. I mean, we were both writing about music. You worked at OPB I was at The Mercury, like all that. There was lots of overlap and lots of similar interests and I feel like for me that made it. I didn't play in a band, but I wanted to contribute in more of a tangible way. Throwing shows is one thing. This is one thing, but having a podcast or [amplifying] bands in Portland and also just be involved more in have this sort of platform was cool.

PB2: I think also cause we were both working in the

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drink with them, and then sit down and they curated a playlist for us of what they're into. And that ends up bringing us to how that influences their music, but in a roundabout way. It's not so direct as like, what are you listening to right now? That's influences. They come prepared. They come armed with 10 tracks.

PB1: No. We wanted them to come prepared. Not everyone did.

PB2: Try telling a band what to do. It's not going to work. I mean, that's where we came from, as far as our approach.

Mom: You started this when you had arguably a lot more free time than you do now. How do you maintain the project?

PB2: Well, I think Party Boyz was started at a really urgent time in both of our lives where we were literally just starting out. We had some background experience, versus now, where I have a full time job, Liz has three full time jobs — it definitely becomes harder to make time for this stuff, but Party Boyz is

community meet your maker

sort of a representation of our friendship in a way. It's always going to be a thing. It's always going to be an inspiration of ideas and projects that we want to take on. And I think that a lot of those are still going to happen.

PB1: I think that we each get a lot out of it too, as far as inspiration goes. There's a certain high after sitting down with a band and having a conversation that is so meaningful about the struggles of being creative, making ends meet, and the brutality of the industry. It's not easy. And it's not easy to be a woman in it too. You know, which is like, why it's tongue in cheek.

PB2: Party Boyz, or girls that party like boys. That was what we said two days after meeting each other. And it is a play, but I think it's absolutely true too. We can hold our own and we both are very strong, independent people. And the industry tries to push that around sometimes. It's changed even from when we began. Yeah. Jesus, what we're talking about six, seven years of friendship and the industry stuff?

PB1:The entire "Me Too" movement happened in the past seven years. Not that it hasn't been happening for the past a hundred years, but that it's such an outspoken thing of how women are treated in this... Always, but especially in the entertainment and the music industry.

PB1:How many women run music festivals are there? And when I'm talking to some guy in LA on the phone, they try to do a contract with me and I can tell he's pushing me around. I'm like terrified, but I learned how to stand up to that too.

Mom: So what advice can you give to the party babes of the world that want to be involved in the music industry?

PB2: I started my career based on basically getting dumped from a shitty job. And I was out on my ass. I had nothing. I was like, "I don't know what to do". And I'm like, "what do I want to do? What do I really want to do?" And obviously that comes from a bit of a place of privilege. I understand that, but I got a service industry job, and I started writing for the Mercury. I started writing for ELEVEN. But all that stuff, and paving a path and learning how to do the things that I knew I wanted to do – that's how Party Boyz started, that's how I ended up at TLE, that's how things actually work. So, I feel like that might be a little... sound a little fairytale-ish.

PB1: It's tough to say, but there's a lot of luck involved in the industry. It's about right place, right time, who you know, but also that's not completely true as well, because hard work does pay off, and you have to put yourself out there, and you have to put your head down. And you also have to truly follow what interests you, because that will keep you going when it goes shitty.

PB2: And it's tough. It's really hard and it's not for the weak hearted at all.

PB1: Party Boyz, that's not a job. This is always a passion project. We're doing it because we love to do it, and it was so fun, and it is so fun to get creative people together, and work with our friends on all these different projects and succeed.

PB2: It's really a celebration of the community and of everyone else around us that is in on these projects. Âť

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LITERARY ARTS Robbi Rodriguez by Scott McHale

T

he creation of a compelling comic book requires both the strong storytelling skills of a writer and the vision of an artist to convey aspects of the three dimensional world on a 2-D plane. Robbi Rodriguez has been a prolific freelance artist in the comic book industry for years, and has struck gold with the massively popular series Spider Gwen, co-created with writer Jason Latour. The duo revived and reimagined the (killed off) Gwen Stacy/Spider Woman character from the original Spider-Man comic series of the '60s and '70s. She became an edgy punk rocker with a uniquely modern style. The Spider-Gwen character that they created was recently featured in Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Robbi rendered the world that Spider-Gwen inhabits and the costume she wears with striking, vibrant colors and beautifully flowing linework that always seems to show movement. Remarkably, he has been drawing with impaired vision since the beginning of his career due to a cornea disease that has been held at bay by constant medical treatment.

In 2006-07 while working for Oni Press, Robbi was asked to work on the Stephen Colbert project, Tek Jansen. He was already working on two other books including Maintenance, about two janitors who work in a super-villain manufacturing plant. It was picked up for ten issues so Robbi had his hands full, but couldn’t pass up working on the Colbert comic, so he did both. In 2015, the idea of Gwen Stacy becoming a superhero started as a one-off opportunity for Robbi Rodrigues to get involved with a big Spider-Man crossover series. It quickly became something much much bigger. Edge of Spiderverse #2 sold out in no time and the character he helped to create was the main reason. The Spider-Gwen costume he came up with was immediately hot on social media. Production shots of it had already been circulating around Instagram and were gathering an enormous amount of attention. There were eight reprintings in the span of a few months. What was supposed to be a one-and-done section of a mini series turned into an overnight sensation. Plans for another Marvel book were shelved because the success of the Spider-Gwen character called for an immediate follow up from Robbi and Jason Latour.

Soon they would be offered their very own series. The news was shared at comic-con a few weeks later where the duo made a surprise panel appearance that was likened to pro-wrestling performance.

I caught up with Robbi Rodriguez at his favorite local bar, Ship Ahoy Tavern. I have seen him draw at several establishments over the years and always wanted to know his story and how he succeeded in the ultra-competitive comics industry. Ever since books like Art Spiegleman’s Maus won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992, comics have gained more respect as legitimate literature of the way the creators treat the human qualities of their characters, even the superheros.

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Photo by Mathieu Lewis-Rolland ELEVEN: Character development in comics is the same as it is in other forms of fiction. As the Illustrator, how do you get inside the character’s head?

Robbi Rodriguez: It more like being a director. You need to know the script, inside and out. I talk to my writers and give them my notes - Where I think the characters should go.

After I read the script, I’ll give them my breakdown of what the page should look like. Here’s the camera angles I want, Here’s the blocking I want to do. Here’s what the costume is going to look like. I think the story is going to move in this particular way. To move the reader around with each page because you do have to guide the reader around a little bit. Even though it’s meant for every reader to find their own way around it. When it’s done, it’s done and you have the big finale. But the goal is to have these little cliffhangers so the reader will make sure to go on to the next page.

11: Where do comics fall in the literary world?

RR: It’s a medium, not really a genre. Once you open a comic you can see all the time all at once, just by looking at it. As an artist, you have to delve into it in a linear way to see where your art is at a certain place and time. It’s directing, set building, costuming, cinematography, all at once. The goal is to know your character, and where they are going to be in order to sell the drama in order for someone to read it. The ultimate goal is not to waste too much time.

11: What was the genesis of Spider Gwen?

community literary arts

RR: I was doing a book for Vertigo Comics called FBP Federal Bureau of Physics. It was basically like Ghostbusters but they solved anomalies of physics around the world. I was a little frustrated by the writer. I was about to quit and go back into self publishing. I did that for a while too. I did a book called Frankie Get Your Gun that turned into a web comic. But I was a good friend of Jason Latour and he said, "We’ve got this one shot, I’m about done and I think you are too. Let’s have fun with this last issue.” He told me the concept - a bunch of spider people for this big crossover event. He asked me what I wanted to pitch and we were going to do a Ben Parker as a cranky old man. They already had plans for Ben Parker, so when they showed us the list, Jason said, "Can we do Gwen Stacy?" I said, "Yeah, sure, whatever. Let’s do that." It was a big challenge for Jason. He was a big Spider-Man fan and the idea of resurrecting Gwen Stacy was a big no-no.

11: Why was she killed off?

RR: She was killed off in the Original Spider-Man. And to me, it was just a name. I knew the lineage of it, and for me she was a prop for the male protagonist to keep moving forward type of thing. I wanted to try something different too. When we got on the horn with them, they literally wanted to do an old-school Gwen Stacy where she’s in the jacket with that old sixties look, but she just has Spider-Man lining the inside of

the jacket.

I was like, "Dude, I’m not doing that.

We want to do something different." He (Jason) brought up the idea of her being in a band. Ideally, I thought [she] should be Blondie. She’s Deborah Harry as a superhero, we’re doing that.

11: Since this is a music magazine, can you tell me a little about Gwen Stacy the rock star?

RR: Well, she is in a struggling all girl band, called the Mary Janes. We took all the love interests of Spider-Man throughout his years - Obviously Mary Jane as the lead singer.

Betty Bryant as the bass player and Gwen is the drummer.

They’re just out of high school and going to college, and all live together except Gwen who lives with her dad. They’re just struggling musicians doing gigs. Me and the colorist for Spider Gwen, Rico Renzi, [are] big music snobs and share playlists together. We already had the ideal soundtrack we worked on that added an angsty, punky feel that ended up in Spider-Gwen.

It was that girl riot aspect of the music that we wanted to add to Gwen.

I had some good buddies from Texas in a band called Marries With Sea Monsters who did the soundtrack for one of my other books, Frankie Get Your Gun. I commissioned them without telling Marvel, or even Jason. There’s a song in the book called "Face it Tiger." I had my friend make up the rest of the words. I only gave them three rules - It’s gotta be punky, it’s gotta be girl riot, and it’s gotta be under three minutes.

They got it to me the night before the book came out. I had the YouTube set all ready to go, so once it dropped at ten o’clock in New York. I sent it to a bunch of friends and just had them spread it out. It’s like weird guerilla marketing, in a way. »

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VISUAL ARTS

Yong Hong Zhong by Richard Lime 28 | ELEVEN PDX

community visual arts

ELEVEN: When you're going to make a painting what are you looking for?

Yong Hong Zhong: I actually do a lot of plein air painting.

“Plein air painting” is a term, I think that came from the French, it means just literally painting outdoors.

So, for the past couple of years, it was just one of those things that I thought, "Well, it's a good way to kind of keep in practice." And at the time, my kids were a lot younger.

Just a couple of years ago, I would actually sit at my kids recitals, piano lessons, and I would just sit there.

Now, what would I do for the time that I had (initially) about an hour, an hour and a half? I decided to just give myself a project to do, so I would take advantage of the time I was there and just paint whatever was in front of me. Initially, it was just kind of like whatever I could get my hands on at the time, I would just go and paint.

For the past couple of years I've been doing that and I started posting stuff on Instagram. I guess it just kind of evolved over the years. When I'm actually painting — this is all tied into the type of things that I did when I was at Disney — It's always about the feeling.

It could be something really simple. It doesn't have to be this amazing landscape, or this beautiful portrait. It has to be that when I look at a scene in front of me. The feeling that I get from that — then my goal is to try to capture that feeling. Like, it could be a snow scene, or it could be a very serene waterfall. My goal is to try to capture that feeling, and then when the audience looks at the painting, they can look at what I paint based on their own experience.

I think that's where the connection between my work and other people, whoever's looking at it, established that connection. Rather than just take a photo, take out my smartphone, I actually take the time and really try to just strip away all of that nonessential things and just focus on getting that feeling across.

Does that make sense?

11: It does. And I'm fascinated at where the line might be drawn of someone who's a professional photographer, or an arts photographer — Ansel Adams, or whomever. They can definitely convey a story, or emotion and feeling with their photo. So, what is it about watercolor for you that lets you communicate that feeling better than a photo?

YHZ: I spent years at Disney. I designed backgrounds for animated films, so my composition, it's, “What are you going to tell? What kind of story?” I have developed over the years, just to simplify what is in front of me, not just paint stuff.

Not to [just] paint details, paint all of the stuff that I paint to tell a story. I also like other mediums, but for the past few years I've been doing a lot more watercolor.

I like the spontaneity that I can find in watercolor.

If you do any kind of painting — watercolor, oil, or other medium — watercolor is by far one of the more challenging mediums to get good at. I guess for me, I actually like the feeling because sometimes with oil when you put a brush stroke, it doesn't move. It doesn't change color. It stays where you put it. And once you lay it on, if you don't like it, you can wipe the canvas. But with watercolor it's more like you have a Photo by Peter Blackwood sheet of paper and your watercolor. If you start a painting and halfway through the painting [you] realize, "Oh, I made a mistake," you can't just wipe it away. How can I bring it back? Or how can I make the best of it? Sometimes artists will call that a happy accident, that it's difficult to recreate.

So there is that uncertainty in the watercolor paint that I like. It's actually not easy to control, but if you learn to enjoy the process, it definitely allows me to create the feeling that I get and not feel control.

These are things that it's easier for me to show you rather than talk. When I teach workshops I say, "Oh, I'm going to show you." I would break it down and demonstrate what I mean by that. Because water medium depends on how much water you have in your brush, how wet the paper is, if it's a sunny day, if it's a rainy day, if it's a cloudy day — they all change the way

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community visual arts

the medium behaves. So, there's all these things that [are] happening, and you just have [to say], "Okay, I'm going to trust this is how it's going to turn out." You have a lot of trust in yourself, and a lot of confidence. You really have to have a very clear idea [of] where you want to take this painting.

So, does that answer your question?

11: That is where we were headed. There’s a French term, ‘au premier coup,’ where the first brush stroke is the right brush stroke, the only brush stroke, as a concept.

With watercolor you're somewhat forced into that. It is that uncertainty and that challenge, but it's almost a little bit of a metaphor for life. You have these variables that you have to deal with, you confidently do it, and you can't really undo certain things. You make the best of what you have.

Would you agree?

YHZ: Yes. Yes, exactly. And a lot of that confidence. The way [a] brush stroke is laid down, you can tell if it's confident and know and trust that what they're going to put down is going to be fine; or if it's not fine, they're going to turn into something.

It's having that uncertainty, and it constantly keep you on your feet. Not like with certain mediums [where] it becomes very predictable and you have a kind of routine.

So, with watercolor it's every painting is different, that's how I feel.

11: After a long run at Disney, what was it about Portland that made you want to bring your family here and raise them in the Pacific Northwest?

YHZ: I have to say, I've been to different parts of the country. I feel like Portland has just the right mixture of the city and also nature.

I spent a lot of time growing up in New York and I lived in Florida. I lived in California. So, I kind of have an idea of what each location has to offer. New York is definitely not someplace that I would want to raise my kids.

Right away I was so drawn to Portland, because of the natural beauty in Portland. It's a city that is not so big, like New York or Los Angeles, [that] I feel like it's very stressful. That hustle and bustle type of lifestyle is just not conducive to the type of lifestyle that I want. I want to raise my kids in more of a slower pace and really wanted to just enjoy my time with my kids, not getting caught up in that, "Oh, I got to go to a nine-tofive job, got to pay the bills." I think Portland has that option for me. When we went to visit Portland, right away I felt like this is the city that I want to be in. »

See more online:

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yonghongzhong.com and @yonghong.zhong.9

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