ELEVEN VOLUME8,8,ISSUE ISSUE56 ELEVENPDX PDXMAGAZINE MAGAZINE -- VOLUME
COMPLIMENTARY COMPLIMENTARY
INSIDE: THE GOON SAX | J MASCIS | MISS RAYON OSHUN | ALIA HOFFMAN | DUSTIN MILLS
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contents
ELEVEN PDX MAGAZINE VOLUME 8 ◊ ISSUE No. 6
November 2018 THE USUAL 4 Letter from the Editor 4 Staff Credits
FEATURES Local Feature 12 Miss Rayon
Cover Feature 16
NEW MUSIC
Khruangbin
5 Aural Fix
The Goon Sax OSHUN Shy Boys Triathalon
8 Short List 8 Album Reviews Nebula Rosa Monteagle Jeff Tweedy J Mascis
COMMUNITY Local Hero 24 Dustin Mills
Literary Arts 26
Women Writers Against Trump
Visual Arts 28
Alia Hoffman
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
HELLO PORTLAND!
EXECUTIVE STAFF EDITOR IN CHIEF Ryan Dornfeld (ryan@elevenpdx.com)
ONLINE Michael Reiersgaard, Kim Lawson, Chance Solem-Pfeifer
The world lost another beautiful soul in October, leaving Portland’s musical and creative communities with an irreparable void, and nearly shaking ELEVEN PDX off of it’s foundation. Dustin Mills was our co-founder and creative director, but beyond that he was a son, brother, bandmate, talented graphic designer, esteemed employee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, badminton organizer, and dear friend.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Dustin Mills
GET INVOLVED getinvolved@elevenpdx.com www.elevenpdx.com Tw/Insta @elevenpdx facebook.com/elevenmagpdx
Dustin wasn’t here for a long time, but the mark he made was well beyond his years. Throw a rock in Portland and you’re liable to hit someone who could attest to his kindness, creativity, and dedication to supporting the communities he loved. Although our city, and certainly this magazine, will never quite be the same without him, we’re all the better off having had the time we did with him. If there’s one thing he taught us: do what you love, and make it awesome… or else. This issue is dedicated to Dustin. We miss and love you, brother. For the glory!
- Travis Leipzig, Managing Editor
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MANAGING EDITOR Travis Leipzig (travis@elevenpdx.com) SECTION EDITORS LITERARY ARTS: Scott McHale VISUAL ARTS: Mercy McNab GRAPHIC DESIGN Dustin Mills, Eric Evans, Katie Silver CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Eric Swanson, Nathan Royster, Anthony King, Kelly Kovl, Matthew Sweeney, Liz Garcia, Charles Trowbridge, Christopher Klarer, Eirinn Gragson, Henry Whittier-Ferguson, Aaron Colter PHOTOGRAPHERS Mathieu Lewis-Rolland, Molly Macapline, Todd Walberg COVER PHOTO Katie Summer REVERSE COVER PHOTO Molly Macalpine
GENERAL INQUIRIES getinvolved@elevenpdx.com ADVERTISING sales@elevenpdx.com ELEVEN WEST MEDIA GROUP, LLC Ryan Dornfeld Dustin Mills SPECIAL THANKS For Dustin, Fairy and Aaron
new music aural fix
AURAL FIX
up and coming music from the national scene
1 THE GOON SAX NOVEMBER 06 | POLARIS HALL Two years ago, The Goon Sax released their charmingly personal debut Up To Anything while the band’s members were still in (the Australian equivalent of) high school. Now, with diplomas in hand and two European tours under their belts, the Brisbane trio is back with We’re Not Talking—an eclectic collection of pop musings and youthful yearnings that range from great to could-be-great. Clocking in at just under 30 minutes, We’re Not Talking moves fast. Album opener “Make Time 4 Love” is everything you want in a cinematic cowbell-driven pop song. Guitarist Louis Forster’s run-on-sentence vocals and detailed storytelling are captivating, hinting at Alex Turner influences. James Harrison (bass) takes over lead vocal duties on “Love Lost” and lead single “She Knows.” —the former features bouncy bongos and sweet harmonies; the latter strained vocals, a cacophony of distorted guitars, and a standout solo. Album highlight “Losing Myself” is a mostly male-female duet between Forster and Riley Jones (drums)—although there is some nice three-piece harmony from the entire band between verses.
Photo by Alberto Vargas
2 OSHUN NOVEMBER 10 | HOLOCENE Thandiwe and Niambi Sala go by OSHUN—a name adopted from the Yoruba spirit that succeeded in creating the world after the male gods failed before her in this West African faith. These two New Yorkers take on hip-hop with the assertive nature of a deity, in topic and in tone. Their first release was what they deemed a pre-album, AFAHYE in 2014, and it serves as an easy entry point to their work, sampling safe-bet beats like J Dilla and A Tribe Called Quest while showcasing the duo’s lyrics, vocal flow, and siren-smooth rhymes in roughly 15 total minutes.
Driven by a drum machine and a sad synth hook, the instrumentation here is a surprising breath of fresh air that showcases the bands maturing approach to songwriting and arranging. Musically speaking, up until this point everything on We’re Not Talking has felt like an evolution of The Goon Sax’s sound. However, on the second half of the album, it feels a bit like the band starts to take a few shortcuts in their songwriting. In particular, solo keyboard-tracks “Somewhere In Between” and “Now You Pretend” are a bit half-baked. Presumably meant to be interludes, the tracks never quite justify their reason for being. That being said, they do serve to highlight that The Goon Sax are more than the sum of their parts—and best when supporting each other. And isn’t that why people form bands in the first place? – Eric Swanson
Their 2015 mixtape, ASASE YAA, presents their sound in long form, consisting of similar jazz/hip-hop infused productions, focusing largely on the conceit that they are in fact heavenly bodies, an idea that coexists with their strong self-love tracks like “Brown” (“Brown/ from my crown/ all the way down/ to the ground/ truly profound / your shade brings strength to the blues that surround you”). The newest album, bittersweet vol.1, finds the Salas’ centrifugal force gathering. There’s spoken word deliveries on “Glow Up,” piano hooks on the out-and-out pop song “Crazy 4 You” and the celestial “”Blessings on Blessings” has the two trading bars, aggressive and meek. OSHUN is drawing on American music, and more specifically on music black populations either had a major hand in proliferating or are solely responsible for creating. On “Not My President,” Niambi and Thandiwe showcase the many genres that inspire that history. It begins with trap snares, morphs into an R&B slow jam, swoons with reggae affected rapping, disintegrates out via jazz jam session, and ends with a distant trumpet in a tailspin. The song is urgent, danceable, relaxed, and somehow sexy at times, all while embodying the United States’ whirling engagement on topics of race and immigration (“Fuck yo’ wall!/ Fuck yo’ clan! / Not my president/ Keep the melanin”). It’s a difficult topic to juggle while keeping anger and beauty side by side, but maybe that’s not so hard for a couple of divinities. – Nathan Royster
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new music aural fix
3 SHY BOYS NOVEMBER 18 | REVOLUTION HALL In the four years between their self-titled debut and this year’s Bell House, Kansas City’s Shy Boys have subtly polished their lo-fi production while doubling down on their sweet vocal harmonies. Initially formed as a trio in 2012, Shy Boys now comprise five members: brothers Kyle and Collin Rausch, Konner Ervin, Kyle Little and Ross Brown. The band’s languid, sun-drenched Midwestern brand of jangle-pop is reminiscent of indie-rock forbearers such as Big Star, The Wedding Present and The Shins’ early output. Their ‘60s bubblegum affinities and intertwined honey-glazed vocal arrangements are suffused with irreverent-yet-earnest wit, imbuing bittersweet whimsey into even their dourest ditties (“Evil Sin”). There’s a certain effortlessness to this band’s square peg/round hole pluckiness: Shy Boys’ breezy and loosely kinetic songs don’t sound painstakingly labored over. Instead, they seem crafted with ease by a quintet of close neighborhood friends (Bell House is named after the fondly remembered Bell Street headquarters they called home for the better part of five years). “Take the Doggie,” for instance, belies the sadness of its narrative—liberating a neighbor’s neglected and malnourished pup—with nervy rhythm and just-muddy-enough percussion, sounding akin to Thin Lizzy engaged in a friendly game of lawn darts with The Apples in Stereo. The linchpin of Shy Boys’ sound, however, is their use of five-part vocal
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Photo by Libby Zanders
harmonies. Bell House’s opening track, “Miracle Gro,” is a shimmering choir cresting a wave of Baroque-pop sensibilities, featuring nothing but handclaps and the band members’ a cappella latticework. While their vocal interplay has earned comparisons to The Beach Boys and their music conjures a certain warm and nostalgic indie-rock familiarity, Shy Boys’ sunbeam-soaked arrangements whirl with a looser kind of nudge-nudge, wink-wink playfulness. Angelically golden-voiced, Shy Boys are like time travelers backpacking through pop-rock’s decades gone by, beaming in from a daze of future’s past. – Anthony King
new music aural fix
Photo by Jahmad Balugo
4 TRIATHALON NOVEMBER 29 | DOUG FIR Any artist new to New York City will no doubt be inundated by endless sources of inspiration. Triathalon is no exception. Originating from Savannah, Georgia, this group has fully embraced their geographical shift northward, and it’s working. Five members (Chad, Adam, Hunter, Lamont, and Kristina) are listed on their website, up one person from last year. Together, they’re molding their sound into sexy, new shapes, but the common thread of experimental indie vibes continues to unite new with old. Their new locale combined with being another year older has matured their sound into some serious, serious lo fi. As a music reviewer, it’s kind of my job to put bands into genres, but I just really hate to do that with Triathalon. Here’s a try, anyway: their latest album, Online, released earlier this year, reminds me a lot of the Jersey Devil album by Ducktails. Think slow, think ‘80s retro, think R&B. Listening to their four albums, it’s easy to hear they don’t like to stay stuck on any one theme. And while the lo-fi, super chill vibe that’s going on right now is five stars, neither they, nor I, can promise it will be like this forever. I am certain they will continue to take the unbeaten path and do some more shape shifting in the coming years. November is the perfect month to catch them live...bring your current lover with you, cozy up on the dance floor and let their groove melt your ears and bodies like butter. – Kelly Kovl
QUICK TRACKS A
B
“Couch”
“Distant”
The epitome of their current vibe: slow beat, twang from the keyboard and sexy lyrics, “Chilling in my living room... thinking about every single thing I wanna do with you; Can I get you home, in the zone?”
A new single that a YouTube commenter affectionately called “suburbwave.” Slow jam about the ending of summer and a reminder that “I’m just laying in the deep end (for you).”
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new music album reviews
ALBUM REVIEWS
but shows promise, even flashes of brilliance in its eclecticism.
THIS MONTH’S BEST
R REISSUE
L LOCAL RELEASE
Short List
Buxton Stay Out Late Jacco Gardner Sominum Charles Bradley Black Velvet Jaden Smith The Sunset Tapes: A Cool Tape Story Kanye West Yadhi Anderson .Paak Oxnard The Smashing Pumpkins Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 Mariah Carey Caution Lil Peep Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 2 The Prodigy No Tourists Muse Simulation Theory Moonface This One’s For The Dancer
Buy it
Stream it
Nebula Rosa Bengala Bubble Bath Records Nebula Rosa are a psych-pop band that arose from the complex interplay of Latin American musical influences in their stomping grounds of Miami, though core members George Elizondo and Josh Starkman actually met years later in New Orleans. Their first album, Bengala, off New Orleans’ Bubble Bath Records, is a pretty light-hearted affair,
the perfect tune for holding a glass of something good and looking back on memories. The, relying mostly on vocals, guitar, and piano, “Midnight Noon” is one to sweep you off your feet and liable to conjure images of couples slow-dancing. Later, definitely featuring the most percussion on the record to that point, “Honeymoon” gives voice to a hauntingly beautiful guitar melody and solo. It’s the kind of track that leaves you wanting more.
Toss it
Monteagle Midnight Noon Fire Talk Records Midnight Noon marks the first fulllength album from Americana singersongwriter Justin Giles Wilcox, who performs under the moniker Monteagle. The debut LP is a mellow, reflective narrative from Wilcox via a current of dreamy folk-rock. To begin with a standout track, “East LA” resonates as a coming-of-age song,
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Elizondo and Starkman sing in both Spanish and English. And many of the English songs, like “Don’t Say,” sound kind of stilted and are perhaps a bit much in their throwback vibe, almost like these native English speakers are singing the lyrics phonetically (like the international pop singers of old often did). Where they really excel are on ballads like “Cada Dia Mas.” Nebula Rosa, with their multicultural dossier of influences from Cuba, Brazil, and the US, really wear the relaxed, yet gently longing vibe of bossa nova well. On the Spanish songs, they mine pop nostalgia well without abusing it; the lo-fi, sparse “El Paisaje” is like a window into the past, dusk descending over a seaside city. And on tracks like the fuzzed-out “Feroz” and “Siglos de Luz,” they even show the fire of their punk days. – Matthew Sweeney
Tennessee raised, now living in New York, Wilcox uses his song “Elvis” as a way of coming to terms with city life and reflecting on his past. To throw out one more, “Cherry Wine” brims with a romantic and ethereal feel. More on the country-folk spectrum, that track is a song of reconciliation that turns into a bittersweet goodbye. If you’re a fan of Iron & Wine or Julia & Angus Stone, I recommend giving Midnight Noon a listen. – Liz Garcia
new music album reviews
Jeff Tweedy, frontman of Wilco and eternal solo artist, is a master at looking outward and reaching inward to bring together two worlds that sometimes feel at odds, or downright unreal, and eliciting some form of universal truth that stands up to just about anyone willing to take it in. His 12th solo album, WARM, fuses these perspectives into an album that feels timelessly appropriate.
Jeff Tweedy WARM dBpm Records Sometimes we feel order in our lives. Sometimes, entropy feels apt. For some, the natural tendency is to look outward at the world to find either order or solace in the chaos. Others look inward, clawing through memories and emotions, trying to pick out the tiny slivers of certainty that must exist somewhere. The best artists do both.
WARM brings out the best in Tweedy. For ardent fans, it goes without saying that the best in Tweedy isn’t always a reflection of the best in us, but he scratches little by little into the soul of the thing. Eventually, that scratch gives way to the heart, and it’s clear that whatever he has to say is meant for you, in some way, as the best artists of any medium are wont to do. The heart is often at the center of Tweedy’s music, be that solo or with Wilco. He grapples with inner demons, wrestles with emotional conflict, and tussles with seemingly natural
disaffected guitar rock that foreshadowed much of what would happen in the American underground for the better part of the next two decades. If you’re one of the uninitiated, do yourself a favor and familiarize yourself with the band’s 30-year back catalogue. It’s full of teenage slacker vibes and triumphant fuzzed-out guitar greatness. It’s good stuff.
J Mascis Elastic Days Sub Pop Underground guitar god J Mascis is best known as the frontman for Dinosaur Jr., one of the most influential American alternative rock outfits of the last 30 years. Sadly, plenty of folks are more familiar with bands Dinosaur Jr. is credited with influencing—Nirvana, Pavement, or Built To Spill—than with Dinosaur Jr. itself. In the late ‘80s, the band put out a string of albums full of distorted, hook-heavy, and
Since the mid-’90s, Mascis has also been touring on the side with an acoustic set that eventually manifested some pretty stellar solo albums, full of stripped-down, southernfried melancholia. As a solo artist, his usual gnarly guitar virtuosity dwindled away in favor of soft-strummed acoustic ballads full of ringing piano accompaniments. The sparser arrangements foreground his road-worn and crusty vocals in contrast to the guitar squall that threatens to bury them in Dinosaur Jr. This is fitting since Mascis seems to be dealing with noticeably more personal subject matter in his solo work, much of which hints vaguely at pain and regret over ill-fated relationships and personal foibles. You know, the kind of stuff you write with 52 years of hindsight at your disposal.
destructive tendencies. In fact, perhaps one of Tweedy’s best assets as a songwriter is the casual contradictions he presents. On “Don’t Forget,” he sings, “We all think about dying/don’t let it kill you …” In those two short statements, he brings together the single existential bond shared by all humans – the abstract thought of death that is both infinitely open-ended but becomes heartbreakingly and immediately tangible for those left to battle with the finality. Tweedy made a record that is meant for those who need him – as a musician, as a storyteller, as a voice for the corners of our minds that remain frustratingly abstract. WARM is, in some ways, misleading. The familiar acoustic is inviting, and his voice is as clear as it’s been in some time. The warmth is in the ambiance, but it doesn’t emanate from the heart, a place of love. He brings us into the fold to quietly devastate. As he sings in “Some Birds”: “I break bricks with my heart/only a fool would call it art.” – Charles Trowbridge
On Nov. 9, Mascis releases his third collection of mostly acoustic solo work, Elastic Days. Fans of the wailing guitar freakouts Mascis is famous for will be happy to find that style in greater abundance than on his previous solo offerings. (They were virtually nonexistent in Several Shades of Why (2011) and intermittently used in Tied To A Star (2014).) The downside is that the pensiveballad-with-triumphant-guitar-solo formula starts to get a little tired as the album progresses past its midpoint. Ultimately, both earlier solo albums were more dynamic in mood, tempo, and instrumentation. Each song here is compelling on its own, but strung together over 42 minutes, they lose their luster. Bottom line: if you’re a fan of his first two solo records, you’ll find most of what you liked about them, with maybe a little heavier dose of angst and a few more wild solos. And if you are a fan, you can check him out in person at the Aladdin Theater on Thursday, Nov. 8. – Christopher Klarer
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Billy Strings | Sammy Brue Los Campensinos | Illuminati Hotties Sister Hazel Joan Baez Still Dreaming with Joshua Redman, Ron Miles,
Scott Colley and Brian Blade
Why? Plays Alopecia | Lala Lala Wavves | Shy Boys The Tallest Man On Earth Ingrid Michaelson Trio: Songs for the Season Echo & The Bunnymen | Enation
CLUB 11 TOFFEE 1006 SE HAWTHORNE ALBERTA STREET PUB 12 115 NW 5TH 3 4 5 8 9 9 10 10 15 16 17 17 23 25 28
The Alliance Comedy Showcase (every Sunday) The Libertine Belles Keith Harkin & Eagles Songwriter Jack Tempchin Rose City Hip Hop Showcase 5 Letter Word Ron Rogers & The Wailing Wind Beth Wood, M. Lockwood Porter, John Calvin Abney Julie & The WayVes Argyle, Zindu, Spirits in Computers The James Low Irregulars Alexis Mahler, Jacob Miller, Hanna Haas Wallace Jesse Sykes and Phil Wandscher Madgesdiq meets Elite Beat Postmodern Pirates J. Moses & The Ragged Sunday
THE SECRET SOCIETY 13 116 NE RUSSELL
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Honky Tonk (Tuesdays) Zydeco (Wednesdays) Swing (Thursdays) The Barn Door Slammers Tracy Bonham and Blake Morgan The Jenny Finn Orchestra The Sportin' Lifers feat. Erin Wallace Redray Frazier | The Frequence | The Loved Gypsy Swing: James Mason & The Gypsy Hicks Melao de Cuba Salsa Orchestra Ben Larsen (Album Release)
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Open Bluegrass Jam (Thursdays) J. Moses & The Ragged Sunday | The Low Bones Arran Fagan | The Duke of Norfolk | Hannah Haas Siren Nation Festival: Katie Kuffel | Stereo RV Marianne Flemming Jeff Plankenhorn | Kanude Frank Barter JM Long Rainbow Electric Bitches Of The Sun Mexican Gunfight | Smith/McKay All Day Biddy on the Bench Elizabeth Moen | Bri Cauz
WHITE EAGLE
14 836 N RUSSELL
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LOCAL FEATURE
M
Miss Rayon
iss Rayon practices in a cute garage space adjacent to Eric Sabatino’s moped shop in St. John’s. The doors connect, and both day life and nightlife collide for Sabatino, who kickstarted Miss Rayon last year. Joined by drummer Hannah Blilie and bassist Jenny Logan, a no-wave / post-punk / goth-pop dream has come alive and is sure to take hold of the Portland scene. New album Eclipse is set to come out in November, featuring haunting vocals and catchy dance riffs, along with an accent of dark synth. Comprising former members of bands like Gossip, Cat Hoch, Deathlist, Appendixes and Summer Cannibals, this talented crew has been places and are a truly passionate bunch. Quite the gear freak, Sabatino rocks an Emax synth sampler from 1989, an obscure piece of history compatible with the original Macintosh computer of the late ‘80s, not to mention his various other synths and guitars complementing their cozy music haven. ELEVEN’s Eirinn Gragson caught up with Sabatino and hear all about this incredible setup. (Hannah Blilie makes a brief cameo later in the interview.) Eleven: So this is your shop and studio? Eric Sabatino: I own the moped shop, yeah. That’s what I do during the day, and for money. And a couple of friends and I, plus my girlfriend, all help keep that place going, and we all play music in here all night. It’s a pretty cool setup. 11: When did you open the shop? ES: When I moved here, I worked at a different scooter shop. And when I quit
there, I just started getting work, and it slowly just snowballed into my having an actual rented garage with some guys. That was more of a funky DIY space … I was definitely running a business out of my garage, and my neighbors were complaining. Then, that got to the point where I kind of needed a real storefront, so I got this full-sized street spot in St. John’s. 11: Is Miss Rayon your brainchild? ES: Hannah is really co-writing a lot with
features me now. I started it, and I wrote the first batch of songs myself, but I’m trying to make it a band and not a solo project. Everyone’s got a solo project, and I have like two of the coolest musicians in Portland who want to play my music with me, and I want it to be a band. It’s all three of us. 11: And Jenny runs XRAY? ES: She’s the president of the radio station. She started the radio station and still works there, but it’s a big organization with a lot of people. And she plays with a lot of bands. 11: I also saw that you’re on XRAY Records.
that perfectly, so I can make samples on there – you can play Oregon Trail on it too. 11: This is even older than I ever used! This is a beautiful piece of history. ES: The hard drive doesn’t hold a lot. It’s 512MB; that’s a lot for a computer like this, and the sound samples are tiny. In 1986, this was like a $5,000 synth, which would be like $12,000 now, so this is studio-grade stuff, and now it’s something I get off of some nerd that I can trade for some Vespa work. I could buy a brand new Korg sampler, but I probably wouldn’t want to fuck with it. This is just so historically weird, and the interface is so fun, and there’s this Macintosh!
ES: Yeah, she and Marius [Libman] started a label, and I was conflicted about going on the label since it’s partially Jenny’s thing, but they release records by pretty much our closest friends and the bands that are kind of our family, so it felt appropriate. It’s that family of bands. They put out the WL record. It felt like something I wanted to be a part of.
ES: Forever. I got into it when I was like 11. There was an acoustic guitar in my grandma’s basement. I played backward — left handed. I didn’t know I was holding it the wrong way. I have all of these upside-down guitars, all of these special guitars.
11: Where are you from?
11: But you’re not left handed?
ES: I grew up near Detroit.
ES: I am left handed, but I played that guitar left handed to a point where I was too far along to flip it over. I got a chord book from KMart and just read it upside down, I guess, and learned it enough playing all the chords the wrong way with the big string on the bottom and I was like: too late!
ES: That Macintosh interfaces with this Emax Synch. It’s an old late’80s sampler. It’s the smaller, more live friendly version of the E-Mu E3 sampler, which is how the Pet Shop Boys did everything. Depeche Mode made Violator on it. And the drums and everything come out of these things. The Macintosh, most of the bigger color screen models would also interface with this, but this is actually a little bit faster. It’s an ’89, I think. It interfaces with
836 N RUSSELL
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Fox and Bones (Album Release) Ky Burt Mick Overman Fortune's Folly | Sarah Parson Reverb Brothers Trask River Redemption | Trouble Minds Cow Paddy Stompers Trouble Cuts | Gin & Tillyanna Shelby Texas | Karyn Ann The Dead To Rights Jessa Campbell St. James Gate D. Pel and Strange Attractors JT Wise Band Michelle DeCourcy and The Rocktarts | Old Mill Joel Swenson Global Folk Club Clark Beckham Zen Hunter | Ninja Hippy Two Bit Rumor Heart Hunters
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11: So how long have you been playing guitar?
“That’s me just looking at the eclipse and thinking about my life and partying as a punishment more than something that feels good anymore”
11: I have to ask – where did you get this Macintosh computer?
NOVEMBER WHITE EAGLE
11: Hannah, you wrote the song “Eclipse,” right? I was curious to ask you about the meaning of the lyrics? HB: Yeah, so at the time the solar eclipse happened, I’d been in a spot in my life where I’d been partying really hard and kind of lost myself in that lifestyle a
TURN! TURN! TURN! 8 NE KILLINGSWORTH
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Band DJ Sesh (Tuesdays)
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3
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RLLRBLL | Clawfoot Slumber | Galaxy Research
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Warren G SCARLXRD Jack Harlow Open Mike Eagle Harry Hudson | JP Saxe | Silas
The Menzingers | Tiny Moving Parts | Daddy Issues
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elevenpdx.com | 13
features NOVEMBER VALENTINES
17 232 SW ANKENY THEATER 18 ALADDIN 3017 SE MILWAUKIE
1 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 12 15 16 18
La Luz | Shy Boys David Crosby & Friends
Eric Hutchinson & The Believers | Jeremy Messersmith
The Selecter | Rhoda Dakar J Mascis | James Elkington This Will Destroy You | This Patch Of Sky The Paper Kites | Wild Rivers Matisyahu (Acoustic) Rufus Wainwright | Rachel Eckroth Childsplay Polyrhythmics | Kelly Finnigan & The Atonements Estas Tonne 23/24 The Storm Large Holiday Ordeal 28 Squirrel Nut Zippers - The Holiday Caravan 30 Over The Rhine
little bit. I was out at a friend’s property right in the path of totality, just south of Portland, and we’d been up all night and finally 10 o’clock rolls around and the eclipse started happening, and I just had this very powerful emotion of … “Whoa, this isn’t working for me anymore. This is sad.” All the things that used to make me really happy, all the things I used to escape to or escape through or whatever, just weren’t clicking anymore. Not matter how many things were consumed. Also, being around people I loved just wasn’t enough. It was a very powerful realization and a very big turning point in my life.
HB: There’s a lyric, “I stare into abyss and it feels like punishment.” That’s me just looking at the eclipse and thinking about my life and partying as a punishment more than something that feels good anymore. I think it took that weird cosmic experience to really hammer that home.
11: I didn’t think about the eclipse being a turning point, but I felt a similar thing, almost exactly what you’re talking about during that time.
11: Can you tell me about this upcoming record you’re releasing?
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ES: The eclipse thing, that song – we were at the eclipse and that was the day my whole life went completely upside down. It was really appropriate for the story arc of the record. It was like we just needed that song to make all 10 of them make sense together, you know?
ES: Elaina [Tardif] from Tender Age helped me with a lot of the vocal
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Soul Stew w/ DJ Aquaman (Fridays) DJ Anjali & The Incredible Kid: Tropitaal Pigwar | Dove Driver Paul Creighton Project plays Jamiroquai Jujuba ft. Nojeem Lasisi Andy Coe Band The World Beat Collective The Jauntee LDW performing Talking Heads Farnell Newton & The Othership Connection Boys II Gentlemen McTuff Farnell Newton & The Othership Connection Lost Ox Swindler | Fresh Track
THEATER 20 STAR 13 NW 6TH 1 3 6 7 9
Kyle Craft | Melt | Night Heron Tauk | Exmag Blackalicious | 3rd Twin Daley Dirtwire | Moontricks 10/11 Clan of Xymox | The Bellwether Syndicate 16 The Orb | DF Tram 17 Horseshoes & Hand Grenades | T Sisters 19 The Lyric Project: Season 2 20/21 Thanksgiving Throwdown w/ Shafty 30 Zion I | Bretto
LIQUOR STORE 21 THE 3341 SE BELMONT
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Holy Wave | Shadowgraphs | Plastic Cactus Salo Panto | Umbrellaman | Willowhouse Petunia & The Vipers | Jenny Don't & The Spurs Public Memory | Devon Church | Dan Dan Smasheltooth | The Pirate | Chrome Wolves The Artisanals and special guests Pearl Charles The Breaking | Lee & The Bees | Gabby Holt
Seance Crasher | Motorcoat | B.R. Mount & The Doubt
Papercuts | Sugar Candy Mountain | Ezza Rose
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Photo by Eirinn Gragson
features melodies for the first two songs on it. There are 10 songs: the last song is the only one I actually recorded here entirely and because so technical from the aspect of connecting devices to each other. I didn’t think I could recreate it again. It’s a really strange recording. I couldn’t do it again in another studio. 11: Is that something you’ll ever be able to play out? ES: We used to play it live. We just had to play it really differently. And it came out cool live. 11: Who are your biggest influences, musically? ES: I grew up on Sonic Youth. It’s like the most important band in the world probably. I mean, the obvious things are like that and My Bloody Valentine.
Those are what I grew up on as a kid. I really got into Magazine a lot a couple years ago. I don’t know; I listen to all kinds of stuff. I’ve been almost only listing to Fela Kuti, which might be more apparent on the new stuff we’re writing — dancey, heavy polyrhythmic stuff. I write from the perspective of The Kinks more than anything, where a lot of times I try to not write from my perspective. More like, “He’s a dedicated follower of fashion,” singing like you’re observing other people was really Ray Davies’ main thing. 11: Why didn’t you record it yourself? ES: This record mattered so much to me that I couldn’t hear it at all. I couldn’t tell if I was mixing it weird or doing weird things, and I just felt like I wanted to get somebody who did it all the time to just make it. This record got to be this huge personal thing to make. - Eirinn Gragson Portland music veteran Eric Sabatino to explore working as a solo artist after years of playing in bands like Cat Hoch and Appendixes left him craving a project where he could follow his personal influences. After recruiting bassist Jenny Logan and drummer Hannah Blilie – alums of PNW heavy hitters Summer Cannibals and The Gossip, respectively – the band has taken a more democratic turn, with songwriting becoming a more collaborative endeavor.
Miss Rayon Eclipse XRAY Records Miss Rayon’s debut LP, Eclipse, is a funky and dissonant gem that calls to mind some of the best qualities of Reaganera post punk. The album oscillates between clangs of rhythmic angularity and crunchy melodic swagger, with occasional forays into noisy psychedelia. The vocal harmonies are moody and cryptic, propped up by a frequently disco-infused rhythm section that lets the music feel upbeat while treading emotionally bleak territory. The band started as an outlet for
When you listen to Eclipse, you might hear sporadic echos of Gang of Four, Tom Tom Club, Wire or Magazine, but Miss Rayon doesn’t necessary sound like those bands. We’re at a point where any rock band is, by nature, going to conjure a constellation of reference points. If they’re successful, the permutations of their influences will result in something new but still familiar, something that sounds more like a response to influences than a parody of them. Miss Rayon toes this line well, opening up a conversation between the artists that inspire them and creating a pretty stellar record in the process. – Christopher Klarer
NOVEMBER DANTE'S
350 W BURNSIDE
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NO FUN
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Rain Cult | Mr. Malibu Sunday Jazz: Tony Kieraldo & Mike Gamble The Heligoats | Sam Humans | Escare The Bloodtypes | Creature Party | The Wilder
The Vardaman Ensemble | Cosmonox | Trajectory Rad Max | Completely Detatched | Millennial Falcon
Body Shame | Keith Foster | Road Kill | Folian
Onion Church | Lee Elderton and Ryan Meagher Duo
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Lightning Rules | Dearheart | Young Elk | You, Me, The Coast Piefight | Scorpio Moon | Adventure Is Our Middle Name
Voodoo Boogaloo | Day Bones | LIAM
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Secnd Best | Off By An Inch | Head Honcho
Divine Eve | Torture Rack | Cemetary Lust | Fetid
Phantom Family | Drainer | She Irkallian Oracle | Hellvetron | Triumvir Fowl Fun Abuse | Malice Thoughts | Velvet Merkin
Mysticism Black | Ulthar | Shrine of the Serpent | Tithe
Tom Esche | Redeemers | Crooked Looks NOFU | Born Sick | Titty Babbies
Oxygen Destroyer | Molder | Coffin Rot | Disembowel
Mothersound | Sentinel | Degrader DFL | Ground Score | The Brass | Skulk
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THE FIRKIN TAVERN
Located on the west side of Ladd’s, the Firkin Tavern features an astounding selection of craft beers to enjoy inside or on our patio. Art enthusiasts will enjoy a variety of local artwork on display and sold comission free!
1937 SE 11th Ave, 97214 503.206.7552 | thefirkintavern.com
WHITE OWL SOCIAL CLUB 1305 SE 8TH
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1 4 7 8 11 And And And | Honeybucket | Plastic Cactus | Ezza Rose 15 Spiller | State Limbo Market Obscura Dust-e 1 (Lobster Theramin) | Lis Dalton The Domestics | Deathlist (solo) Skipping Bedtime
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Ruston Kelly | Katie Pruitt 10
elevenpdx.com | 15
If “Khruangbin” means airplane, then what does it mean to fly? In one sense, it means to hover above things as arbitrary as genre distinctions, which Laura Lee, Mark Speer and D.J. Johnson seem to do, casting wry smiles down at those who would try to classify them as this or that. In another sense, it means to travel, as the Texan trio does freely, touching down wherever they hear the music rising skyward. In a third and final sense, it means to reach toward some higher ground, to rise up into that same expanse people have long thought must contain god, or a life beyond.
Khruangbin by Henry Whittier Ferguson photos by Katie Summer
Con Todo El Mundo, the group’s second album, is an exercise in all of these types of flight and more, synthesizing countless global influences into something that could be called jazz, psych, funk, gospel, or something else entirely. The album’s title gestures at this inclusivity but also serves as a response to the songs which bookend the record’s first side: “Como Me Quieres” and “Como Te Quiero,” (or, “How You Love Me” and “How I Love You”). The album, and these songs in particular, stands as a memorial to Laura Lee’s grandfather. Indeed, there is often something elegiac in their sound: progressions that pass through minors and majors like bittersweet memories.
features There’s also the funk, materializing on tracks like “Maria Tambien,” which finds guitarist Speer riffing in Middle Eastern pentatonics, while drummer Johnson and bassist Lee lay down a groove reminiscent of early Wu-Tang. At one point while opening for Leon Bridges in early September, they broke into a suite of Dr. Dre’s greatest hits, blurring the lines between the beats and the original samples from the likes of the Isley Brothers, George Clinton, Donny Hathaway, and Willie Hutch. I met the group before that show to talk about Con Todo El Mundo, their philosophies on playing and recording, and what it means to make and enjoy music that will stand the test of time. ELEVEN: Khruangbin, you’re here in Portland! I assume it’s not your first time here. How would you characterize this city? Mark Speer: I don’t know if I could. Every time I’m here it’s different. I think I’ve been here three or four times... Laura Lee: This part of America feels like if the East Coast and the West Coast had a baby: it would be Seattle and Portland. [At this point in the interview, a train passes through the yard below the studio building, horn blaring, loud enough that we have to wait for it to pass.]
your tracks are ordered and the vibes make it work. Is that the way you guys prefer to listen to music? LL: I mean, if you’re making an album, it should play like an album. 11: Do you feel as though there’s more of an emphasis on the single these days?
LL: Obviously in pop music it’s always gonna be that way. You’re making singles for radio play, so it’s not about the album. I think sometimes it might be hard for Khruangbin tracks to work that way, because they’re so much a part of the larger movement of the record. MS: I think there’s a big emphasis too on playlists, but there’s a flow to a playlist, or a mix, and even if it’s a bunch of different artists, the flow has to be right. That’s how an album should be as well. So I don’t necessarily listen to albums top to bottom, but I listen to a lot of mixes, and I think our albums should be like that, so it takes you somewhere. LL: I do think my favorite records are top to bottom; you just put the needle down...
LL: We did when we were in Europe.
11: On that note, you guys are known for your vinyl digging and your use of that medium. When you’re digging for records, what’s the first thing you look for?
MS: Yeah, and at the Grand Canyon.
MS: (laughs)
11: Speaking of modes of travel, Khruangbin means airplane in Thai, and you’ve got something of an aviation theme going on. Could you speak a little bit about that?
11: Or is it one thing? What’s your approach?
11: So, uh, you guys travel by train much?
MS: I mean, it’s called airplane, so it’s kinda an easy theme to go off. It wouldn’t make sense to be car-related. LL: It’s fun. You just find a thing that works and have fun with it. We’re the cabin crew. MS: We’re trying to pull from as many places as we can, so it makes sense to fly.
MS: Right now, like yesterday, I was digging in Seattle, and I was only looking for 7’s — 7-inch 45’s. And I was looking for stuff that either would be good in a mix or was a little nostalgic. I’m usually looking for world funk, and if I can’t find that, I’m looking for Whitney Houston or something like that… LL: It depends, you know. He was going with a specific intention of finding 7-inches, and they were all like 45 cents, so you just go, “oh, I love this song,” and there it goes. MS: You shoulda seen the stack I didn’t get. (Laughs)
11: Sure. Your last appearance here was with Leon Bridges? D.J. Johnson: Our agent set that up, but it’s a good pairing. If someone was building a station, I think we’d be on the same station. Everyone in the Leon crew is really cool; it’s a good fit. LL: A lot of them are from Texas, so it’s like a little Lone Star crew. 11: With your newest record, Con Todo El Mundo, the way I’ve listened to it just about every time is just to put it on and listen the whole way through. It has this really nice flow, the way
18 | ELEVEN PDX
LL: It depends on the shop. Sometimes you find shops that have a whole room of $2 records, and they’re not organized in any way, and sometimes you find a shop that has like three whole stacks of world music. MS: Usually I look for disco and boogie between the years of ‘77 and ‘82. Everything from that time sounds great. LL: You also get to know labels and producers, and then when you see those names, you know it’s gonna sound good.
11: Speaking of sounding good, you guys are rumored to have a recording barn where you cut your albums. Can you speak a little bit about that and your recording process in general? DJ: I think they’re really just more barn recordings than it is a “recording barn.” I mean, it’s a barn. There’s nothing treated about it, sonically, so there’s lots of nature that crawls inside. There are dirt floors. Sound bounces off the walls in a special way, and it adds character to the tone. 11: I’ve noticed about your recording that you’ve been able to capture this really live feel. There are a lot of ways now you can make music with loops and digital audio workstations and things. How focused are you guys on doing things live? How much do you play live versus recording things in post?
MS: I’m usually just terrified to write lyrics, in general. LL: I think we have a sonic approach to writing lyrics, so the melody comes before the words, and the words are fitting in and are really just placeholders for the sound. We try to use words that sing prettier. You know, there are some words that just don’t sing pretty, like “calculator.” I mean, you could, but you know what I mean. MS: “Email” doesn’t really sound like a pretty word to sing. It’s not very poetic… 11: Still, it doesn’t feel as though your lyrics are impersonal. One of the songs I wanted to talk about, “Cómo Te Quiero,” doesn’t have traditionally sung vocals, but does have that vocal sample...
DJ: The three of us record everything together, all live. The only thing you hear that’s overdubbed is some percussion and vocals. MS: Sometimes some keyboard. LL: But the bass, drums and guitar is all recorded live together. 11: Mark, a guitarist friend of mine who’s listened to you a lot was talking about your use of pull-offs as opposed to hammer-ons, especially on this new album. Was that a conscious decision to create a certain kind of sound? MS: Man, I just wanna make it sound like a voice or an instrument other than a guitar, so it’s whatever techniques I gotta use to do that. I guess, yeah, it’s all hammer-ons and pull-offs and pentatonics. DJ: I’ve been analyzing Mark’s guitar playing for the last 10 years, and all I can say is, good luck. (Laughs) 11: I did also want to talk a bit about how you guys see vocals fitting into a song. When you do have vocals, everyone is singing them. MS: Yeah, no lead vocals. (Laughs) LL: They’re the last thing to come on a song. So we treat it like percussion in a way. It’s secondary to bass, guitar and drums, as opposed to more traditionally, where you start with vocals, and add the rest around that. 11: As a writer, I’m someone who pays attention a lot to lyrics. Do you guys have a method for composing lyrics, or do you just write what comes? How do you find the words?
elevenpdx.com | 19
features MS: Those are actually recorded vocals, not a sample. LL: Yeah, we sang through a leslie, so it sounds psychedelic, like you’re inside a tornado. There were more lyrics for that song, but I ended up cutting some of them. MS: We kept deconstructing it down to its center. LL: We kept deconstructing it, and then I’d do a sort-of voiceover. It’s a letter to my grandfather that I’m reading, really far in the back. 11: Yeah, it’s one of those moments that makes you listen close, makes you get in there, to hear what’s being said. I do also think the video, which I love, says more than any words could about what the song means to you. Could you speak a little bit about how you see the relationship between music and visuals, and how you told that story? LL: Yeah, I’ve talked about my grandfather being a source of inspiration for me, in general, and I think I used this album to get that out. When the opportunity came to work with this animator, Cossa, and to make a video for this song, it felt like I needed to have my peace with it. It was the story that I needed to have peace with, and so I talked to the animator about being with my grandfather on his deathbed, and my grandfather was tripping out, basically, for lack of a better word, either because he was on meds or he was close to death, or both. He was in Singapore, and there were flowers
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falling on him, and there was all this stuff happening to him while he was in the bed. And I sort of went on a last adventure with him in his mind. I wanted the video to feel like one last adventure, and [Cossa] worked with me to find ways to represent that. I love that video so much.
11: Had you guys worked with Cossa before? LL: No, I think it was like the second video he’d ever done. 11: There’s a simplicity to that animation style and also to your music that fits really well. Like with the vocals, they have this very specific place and nobody is really stepping out and being the lead. And any musician will tell you that restraint is one of the hardest things to do. I’ve noticed that a lot in your guy’s playing, your sense of restraint. LL: I feel like D.J. is really the master of restraint. DJ: Great things happen in spaces. When you just sit back and you’re not doing anything, you can say more with a rest than you can with a note. So my approach to playing comes from what’s happening between the notes, in the spaces. What we do as a band a lot is play with space. The number one thing I hear about our recordings, especially from a lot of hip-hop producers I know, [is] the space. Some of it has to do with the environment that we record in, and some of it has to do with arrangement and not filling things up too much. LL: I think the biggest challenge in any sort of art is to stand the test of time, and I think most things that are classics or timeless are somewhat restrained. You’re not gonna find something that’s overdone that’s still around, and there’s a lesson in that. 11: You guys have talked a lot about a wide variety of influences. People say your first album has Thai influences, this new one has Spanish, some Chinese influences, and obviously it’s hard to compartmentalize that in any real way, but do you guys have something that’s particularly inspiring you right now or a direction of influence that you find yourselves moving toward? MS: Everything goes in the pot. That first album, although it gets talked about as being “Thai,” there’s a lot of stuff in there besides that. The second album, the same thing, and I feel like we’re gonna keep doing that. Whatever we hear, we’re gonna put it in there, and we’re gonna try mixing things together. LL: I think the commentary comes after. Like, “Oh, that song totally sounds like this influence,” versus us going in and saying, “We’re gonna write a song in this style.” 11: Yeah, that’s something I’ve wrestled with as someone who writes about music and tries to describe it in a way that’s accessible. It’s like, “Just listen to it.” But anyways, before we wrap it up here, do you have any upcoming projects? Stuff in the works? Things that you’re stoked on that you want to plug?
11/2 & 11/3 TOKYO POLICE CLUB FLEECE 11/4 STILL CORNERS RUBY HAUNT SOLD OUT!
ALL AGES
11/5 CAAMP DOC ROBINSON 11/6 MOUNTAIN MAN THE DEAD TONGUES 11/7 LOCAL H: PACK UP THE CATS
11/9 MILO GREENE CHARLEY DAM SOLD OUT!
11/13 ODONIS ODONIS RITUAL VEIL 11/14 HUMAN OTTOMAN TOOTHBONE, CHILDSPEAK WAVE ACTION 11/15 MICHIGAN RATTLERS MISSION SPOTLIGHT 11/16 FEDERALE SUNSET VALLEY 11/17 BLITZEN TRAPPER LULUC SOLD OUT!
11/18 BLITZEN TRAPPER LULUC LOW TIX!
11/23 BERAHMAND ANDREW PAUL WOODWORTH HAWKS AND DOVES
11/25 SHALLOU JAPANESE WALLPAPER
11/12 ACID DAD MALT LIZARD
11/19 MUTUAL BENEFIT GABI
11/21 THE WEATHER MACHINE WORTH NATHANIEL TALBOT
11/24 CASEY NEILL & THE NORWAY RATS JEFFREY MARTIN
11/8 MAC AYRES JACK DINE
11/10 GRAND ROYAL ISLAND IN THE SUN
11/20 AUTONOMICS GOLD CASIO STRANGE HOTELS
11/27 MATT SIMONS CHRIS AYER 11/28 THE DIG HUSTLE & DRONE 11/29 ONES TO WATCH PRESENTS: TRIATHALON THE MARIAS KEVIN KRAUTER 11/30 MARY GAUTHIER ANNA TIVEL
and ! e r o m
MS: Yes, there are things we’re stoked on. DJ: Yes. Not a lot we can talk about… LL: Yeah, there are definitely things in the works, and we’re super excited about all of them!
(503) 231-WOOD ALL SHOWS 21+ 830 E. BURNSIDE SERVING BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER & LATE NIGHT HAPPY HOUR 3-6 EVERYDAY & 10PM-12AM SUN-THURS
See Khruangbin at Crystal Ballroom, November 17
TICKETS AND MORE INFO AT DOUGFIRLOUNGE.COM
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community local hero
But none of that is fair. It gives you a shadow of man. Whenever you look at the picture, you’re always going to notice that missing piece. Dustin’s death added insult to injury in the Portland music community. For him to have gone so quickly after the loss of Heather Hanson was akick in the teeth when you’re already in the gutter. How many pieces can you lose before the puzzle just isn’t worth doing anymore? In Zadie Smith’s latest collection of essays, she writes about philosopher Martin Buber, who had a theory about our relationship to others. Essentially, Buber theorized that as humans we have two types of interactions: ones in which we present ourselves and others present themselves to us as objects, and ones in which we truly see other individuals as being complete, undefinable beings. The first, object-based interactions comprise the majority of our lives. We see and treat people as things to be examined, to be used, to occupy space and time. The second, unique-being-based interactions are extremely rare. They are, in a sense, outside of space and time. They are brief moments when the majesty of consciousness is shared by simply accepting the totality of another mind. We might not ever have an interaction like that with most of the people we know.
LOCAL HERO
Dustin Mills
I
t’s impossible to whittle down the life of a person into so few words. So what you’re reading now is less an exercise in futility and more simply a failure. And like Dustin’s passing—it’s not fair. If you didn’t know him, you won’t find an honest portrayal of who he was by reading this. There’s no balance in losing someone like Dustin Mills. Nothing is going to make up for this void; no shape will make the puzzle whole again. I can tell you that the dozens of times I offered to pay Dustin for his poster work, he refused. I can relay a story about our friend who had to pull over to weep alongside a California highway when she heard the news. I could list every band he supported or quote from a never ending list of people who would praise him.
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Photo by Heather Hanson
community local hero
I bring this up because if you knew Dustin, you knew he could be shy, even awkward at times. It’s my belief that Dustin felt the underlying, tense relationship of everyday object-based interactions. He wasn’t comfortable with small talk because it was window dressing. Dustin wanted to know what was inside; he wanted to see the whole picture. I can’t claim to have ever truly reached that moment with Dustin where we were both complete, undefinable human beings, seeing one another as total. I only know that I wanted to share that moment with him. He was a calming presence to so many people, even if we can never find the words to explain why or how. Living is absurd. We scrabble to put our little section of the puzzle together, knowing well that someday it can and will be swept up and gone. But what choice do we have? Dustin was purposeful, always adding his own pieces, always helping others find where theirs might connect. Our puzzle is always going to be absent a huge, important part of the picture, but because of him the picture is bigger overall. Take a step back. Look at the picture we’ve helped create. Notice the pieces missing, but don’t miss out on seeing how wonderful it is, even briefly . – Aaron Colter
Nov BLOCK 17 PARTY MORE DETAILS: https://tndr.lv/WEandFriends
Pop Up at The Cleaners 403 SW 10TH (NOON–8:00)
TLE Flagship Launch 412 SW 10TH (10:30–8:00)
Prizes, Drinks + More Fun at:
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community literary arts
LITERARY ARTS Women Writers Against Trump
I
n November 2016, the country voted into power a rich and famous misogynist who likes to make offhand jokes about dating his own daughter on national TV. This behavior, along with the infamous “grab them by the pussy” comment that somehow did not prevent him from being elected has infuriated women nationwide. Here in Portland, sister poets Chrys and Allison Tobey took a stand by organizing the first reading of Women Writers Against Trump on the evening of his inauguration. Over 150 people showed up in support that night. The response was so overwhelming that they’ve continued it as a biannual series, with the next reading on Nov. 3 at Ford Food & Drink. “We believe that women have been pitted against one another,” Chrys Tobey tells ELEVEN. “We’ve been conditioned to be critical of one another instead of supportive. Therefore, if we want to create change, it is crucial that women — and our allies of all gender — come together to support one another.” Chrys is the author of the book of poetry A Woman is A Woman is A Woman and teaches creative writing at several local colleges. Her sister Allison is the editor of Gertrude Press and a professor at Chemeketa Community College. They were both equally appalled by the recent confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Allison says an alternate (but less catchy) name for their reading series should be “Women Writers Against Trump and Everything His Elections Condones,” adding that “Trump’s election to the highest office in the land gave credence to this nation’s worst ideas and beliefs. This goes for ideas and beliefs about women, LGBTQ, minorities, immigrants, the mentally ill—the list goes on.” Allison, herself a survivor of sexual assault, was caught off guard by the live testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford while preparing for a class. When Blasey Ford specifically described her trauma — “indelible in the hippocampus is
the laughter” — it triggered a memory of her own assault. “Watching Blasey Ford, I knew she knew that she was a sacrifice—for all of us,” Alison says. “She was revealing her most intimate and painful secrets, laying herself bare, to a country and people that have turned a blind eye on survivors and their claims again and again and again.” Both Allison and Chrys believe the confirmation of Kavanaugh (and Trump’s presidency) is a backlash to progress. They also agree that change cannot come from simply sharing their stories, but by speaking out. Women, survivors, the LGBTQ community, and minorities, they say, must come together and not be afraid to speak out. “Each time a new person speaks out,” Allison says, “we are building the tipping point where progress is inevitable, for everyone. This is the real spirit of WWAT.” The next on Nov. 3 (Ford Food And Drink, 2505 SE 11th Ave, Portland, OR 97202, 7-9 p.m.) will feature published writers Judith Arcana, Tammy Lynn Stoner, Genevieve Hudson, and Kristin Berger: all local poets and writers who will share their own stories. The event is free, but a donation jar will be present with all proceeds going to RAINN, a nonprofit which assists victims of sexual assault and also operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline. Later, in March, the AWP Conference (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) is being held in Portland. The Tobeys say the timing for this national publishing event could not be more perfect. Chrys and Allison Tobey will be hosting several writers for their Women Writers Against Trump series, including Armine Iknadossian, Nikia Chaney, Carol Potter, Xochitl Bermejo and Leni Zumas. In difficult times like these, it’s reassuring to know so many strong and brilliant women are uniting in unsilencing the oppressed.
Photo by Mercy McNab
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– Scott McHale
community literary arts
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community visual arts
Photo by Rebekah Jule
probably me least favorite animal (so many people might curse me for saying this), I really do find cats to be beautiful and captivating creatures, even though I’ve never really had the chance to bond with any of them due to allergies. By replacing paws with human hands, the cats suddenly had a duality appearance of beauty and discomfort -- a perfect visual representation for my relationship with cats. Because the initial sketches got a lot of attention, I wanted to push the idea into a more developed collection of drawings. The reaction from most people was very similar to how people feel about cilantro; they either LOVED them, or couldn’t even stand looking at the cats because it weirded them out too much. These reactions seemed to be more extreme with people who have cats as pets. That reaction was fun to witness. 11: Has art and illustration always been your calling? AF: 100 percent yes. My dad still loves boasting about how he could keep me entertained as a very little girl in boring situations by handing me a scrap piece of paper and a pencil. I sort of wish that I could give a grand statement about how art saved me from a dark place, or how it helps me express deep, untouchable feelings, but really it’s the one thing that I feel like I have a knack for. 11: Have you had any formal training? If so, did you go to school? And where? How much of your formal training do you utilize in your work?
VISUAL ARTS Alia Hoffman
Eleven: Your subject matter seems to focus almost exclusively on animals and nature. What is it about these subjects that captivate and inspire you? Alia Hoffman: I have been drawing animals as far back as I can remember. I’ve also been watching nature documentaries for just as long. I suppose I like how unique each animal species are from one another, and I love how their qualities have evolved over time through survival. 11: You have an installation called “Cats with Hands”. Can you tell us about its conception? AF: During my year of drawing every day in 2017, I was searching for something interesting to focus on. While they’re
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AF: My high school art teacher really encouraged me to pursue a degree in art making, and I’m so glad she did. After high school I jumped right into art school and finished at Pacific Northwest College of Art with a BFA in painting and drawing. It’s a little hard for me to say if I got where I am because of the formal training, or if I could have pushed my skill level without it. I’m grateful that I learned about composition, various art mediums, and also grew a very critical eye for my own work during the 4 years of studying art. Being self critical is a blessing and a curse, though. It’s important to look at your work and push yourself to make art at it’s highest potential, but on the other hand, with that critical eye, how do you know your stopping point? This is something that most artists struggle with, I’m guessing. 11: You also seem to incorporate birds and/ or bird wings into your pieces. Do you consider yourself a “Birder”? Is there something special of your relationship with these feathered creatures? AF: I do have a deep love for birds, but I’m definitely a novice when it comes to identification and general bird education. Because it was sort of difficult to come up with daily drawing ideas last year, I decided to focus on birds for 2018, just to keep things a little more simple this
time around. It’s been fun in finding creative ways to represent them, and I LOVE learning about different birds that I previously have never heard of. 11: You are a versatile artist who works in many mediums. Can you describe the process of transcribing your illustrations on paper to skin? AF: Learning how to tattoo was an extremely humbling experience for me. Because art making has been a life-long endeavor, I suppose, along the way, I grew pretty confident with picking up new mediums and exploring them. Learning a new art techniques has always been a challenge, but never a struggle, and I think my subconscious really absorbed a type of confident identity that I didn’t realize I had -- until I started tattooing. Tattooing was a type of challenge that hit me hard. I wanted to quit because it was too stressful, but because I had so many friends and family cheering me on and supporting me both emotionally and financially, I buckled down and pushed forward through tattoo school. I’m still in the baby stages as a tattoo artist, so I don’t see my drawings fully translating into tattoos just yet. I still have some
techniques to master, but when I do, I hope to create very illustrative styled tattoos, full of color and crosshatches -much like my current drawing style. 11: Has being a tattoo artist altered or influenced your illustrations and style? AF: I was preparing myself for tattoo life before I started school, and knew that I needed to work on adding color into my imagery so that I could be a versatile tattoo artist. In addition to drawing strictly birds this year, I also gave myself the challenge to add color to each daily drawing so that I could really explore my knowledge of color theory and techniques. Previous to the past two years of art making, I mainly focused on pen and ink drawings, and didn’t really consider myself an artist who uses color. 11: You are also participating in the #inktober challenge. Do you find it to be a challenge? Or just a source of creative stimulation? AF: I love Inktober because it makes me feel like I’m in art school again. It’s kind of like art homework.
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community visual arts
My challenge this year was using the prompts to influence each bird drawing. Some were way more challenging than others, too. For instance, the prompt “roasted”... what comes to mind when you think of a roasted bird? I was not thrilled about drawing a turkey dinner, so it was a challenge to visualize something not so literal. 11: Is there anything new you’re working on that you’d like to share with us? AF: Right now I’m just trying to not get too behind with my daily drawings. I will be showing all 365 birds on the first of January at Albina Press on Hawthorn so I have to stay on top of it! Additionally, on December 7th and 8th I will be offering flash pieces for a fundraiser with my buds at Happy Camper Tattoo. A portion of our proceeds will to towards Baby Blues Connection, a non profit who helps families struggling with postpartum depression. I’m excited to see how successful that will be! – Mercy McNab Photo by Rebekah Jule
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DjM
1976 - 2018