THE PORTLAND MERCURY’S GUIDE TO
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A LOVE LETTER TO PORTLAND l d loves l Pabst b Blue l Portland Ribbon. That’s no secret.
THE MILWAUKEE-BORN lager is omnipresent in Portland culture, for reasons that aren’t exactly plain but are certainly undeniable. The affordable yellow beer in the iconic red, white, and blue can has held its own against our city’s exploding craft-brew scene, defying marketplace expectations and nationwide trends—even reversing a decline that sent the brand into relative obscurity at the end of the 20th century. Portland’s grown up a lot in the past decade or so, and Pabst has been right there to grow with it. So while it’s no secret that Portland loves Pabst, Project Pabst is here to remind us that Pabst loves Portland right back. “It’s a love letter to Portland,” says Matthew Slessler, a devoted music aficionado who’s the regional marketing rep for Pabst and one of Project Pabst’s organizers. “Portland is so music oriented and has such a great history, and you could always find Pabst at venues like EJ’s and Satyricon—all these
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great music venues around town, to this day. That’s really how it came about. When the opportunity came along for us to do a music festival, we couldn’t think of a better place for us to do it than Portland.” The festival takes place Friday and Saturday nights at fi ve specially selected Portland venues, with the main event on Saturday and Sunday at the new Zidell Yards venue near the Ross Island Bridge. Pabst has partnered with Superfl y Booking—creators of the Bonnaroo and Outside Lands music festivals—to put on a world-class event tailored specifi cally to Portland. “We don’t have Clydesdales and we don’t do Super Bowl commercials,” Slessler says. “What we do have is a pretty good grasp on the music that people who drink Pabst like.” The festival bill is almost startlingly diverse, from ’80s icons like Tears for Fears and Violent Femmes and indie-rock staples like Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, to genius rapper GZA and metal bands like Vektor and Red Fang. “I’m aware that our brand has been attached
We
“We wanted this festival to be representative of what the Pabst consumer actually listens to.” -MATTHEW SLESSLER to the term ‘hipster,’” Slessler says. “But it was very important for us to show, for example, that the punk-rock community has been very supportive of us, that the metal community has been amazingly supportive of us—those are genres we wanted to represent. It would have been so easy to say, ‘Here are the 16 hottest bands from Williamsburg and Silver Lake.’ We didn’t want to do that. We wanted this festival to be representative of what the Pabst consumer actually listens to.” To that end, each band playing Project Pabst was chosen carefully. Tears for Fears, in particular, have gotten people buzzing. Slessler is personally excited about the UK poppers, who synthesized new wave and new romantic influences into their huge, heady sound. “First of all, I happened to be in high school when Songs from the Big Chair came out. And anybody who knows me knows that I love to play the jukebox at the bar, and that ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ is usually one of my go-tos. So, two days before I found out that Tears for Fears would even be interested, I was in a bar and the very first song I played on the jukebox was ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World.’ And everybody around the bar was singing along, smiling, going, ‘This is great!’ Then, two days later, somebody said, ‘Hey, how about Tears for Fears?’ “I’ve probably gotten more reaction from the bands playing the festival—asking, ‘Hey, can we get in to see Tears for Fears?’—than any other band playing the festival. The backroom ticket requests have been amazing.” No Pabst festival would be complete without Milwaukee’s own Violent Femmes. “We really wanted the Violent Femmes to play because they’re from Milwaukee, and that’s the birthplace of our brand. I once heard someone say of their debut album that it’s The Catcher in the Rye of
music: Every generation a bunch of 16- to 18-yearolds discover it as their own.” And for Slessler a reunited Pure Country Gold ranks as one of the weekend’s many highlights. He’s not alone, either: It’s rumored that a popular eastside Portland bar will shut down during Pure Country Gold’s set on Friday night so that all the bartenders can catch the reunion show over at the Crystal. “They’re a great, great Portland band that deserves all the love in the world,” Slessler says. “They’re among some of the great Portland bands of the last 20 years.” Great bands aside, the event will also raise valuable funds for the Jeremy Wilson Foundation, a Portland charity for musicians in need of health care. “Jeremy Wilson was a big-time Portland musician in the ’80s and ’90s—Dharma Bums, Pilot—and due to some medical circumstances that he had, he started this foundation that helps musicians with no or little insurance and, in some cases, life-threatening illnesses,” Slessler explains. “The Jeremy Wilson Foundation targets musicians—those people who enrich our lives at the expense of having a job that doesn’t offer insurance—and supports them. “We’re giving one dollar with every ticket. One thing I told people early on is, do not use the word ‘proceeds.’ I don’t want the amount we’re donating to be vague. I want people to know exactly how much they’re giving.” Meanwhile, strong ticket sales and a vibrant show of support from the Portland community indicate that Project Pabst could perhaps become a fixture of the Portland music calendar. “The response has been so great that there’s a really good chance this is going to happen again next year,” Slessler suggests. We’ll drink to that! So let the weekend of great music begin—and we’ll see you under the unicorn. ◆
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DAY SCHEDULE
NIGHT SCHEDULE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside 9 pm: Pure Country Gold 9:50 pm: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks 11 pm: to be announced (see projectpabst.com)
Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside 9 pm: Wooden Indian Burial Ground 9:50 pm: Deep Sea Diver 11 pm: Built to Spill
Dante’s, 350 W Burnside 9 pm: Summer Cannibals 10 pm: The Woolen Men 11 pm: Constantines
Dante’s, 350 W Burnside 9:30 pm: Black Snake 10:30 pm: Stoneburner 11:30 pm: High on Fire
Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell 9 pm: Animal Eyes 9:45 pm: Small Black 11 pm: Menomena
Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell 9 pm: Craft Spells 10:15 pm: Surfer Blood
Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi 9 pm: Philip Grass 10 pm: Christopher Willits 11 pm: Jacaszek Ash Street Saloon, 225 SW Ash 9 pm: Sarcalogos 10 pm: Witches Mark 11 pm: Panzergod midnight: Skelator 4 The Mercury’s Guide to Project Pabst
Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi 9 pm: Heather Woods Broderick 10 pm: Rival Consoles 11 pm: Greg Gives Peter Space Ash Street Saloon, 225 SW Ash 9 pm: Burials 10 pm: Dead Conspiracy 11 pm: Lord Dying midnight: Vektor
CONSTANTINES Dante’s
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside
PURE COUNTRY GOLD Let’s just make Pure Country Gold’s “Yellow Bubbles” the theme song of Project Pabst right now. That beery, cheery ode is just one of many great garage door-slammers that Petey J. Cool (Patrick Foss) and Beefjake (Jake Welliver) left behind when they called it quits in 2011. But praise be, the duo is reuniting especially for Project Pabst— because how can you say no to the Blue Ribbon? They’ll be resurrecting their catalog of patented punkabilly R&B, kicking off the festival at exactly the right speed: drunk and loud. 9 pm
STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS With the ’90s distant in the rearview, Stephen Malkmus’ musical scope has become downright polyglot-like, equally fluent in continental Euro-prog, FM-gold rock-block jams, gossamer chamber pop, and the familiar collegiate “alternative” rock he and Pavement helped define. Actually, Malkmus’ backing band the Jicks have a lot to do with that remarkable diversity; they’re an adept and limber outfit capable of navigating any twists and turns thrown their way. The Jicks’ recent Wig Out at Jagbags LP contained enough melodic ideas for a multidisc box set, all the while maintaining the casual, almost breezy approach that makes Malkmus so compulsively listenable. 10 pm
GUIDED BY VOICES Chances are you’ll never be trapped on a desert island with only a single band’s complete discography to keep you company. But if you are, better pray it’s Guided by Voices. Dayton, Ohio’s insanely prolific lo-fi poster boys reemerged in 2010 after a few years off, and immediately jumped back
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in the swing of things—in fewer than three years, they’ve released six new full-length albums. Stack those on top of the classic run of masterworks from the ’90s and early ’00s, and you’ve got a catalog that’ll take a lifetime to get to the bottom of. Tonight Robert Pollard & Co. make a valiant run at stuffing as many of their miniature, muscular rock gems into a single set list; you’ll hear them blast through more ideas in two hours than most bands devise over their entire careers. 11 pm
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Dante’s, 350 W Burnside
SUMMER CANNIBALS Summer Cannibals came out, guns blazing, with 2013’s attention-grabbing album No Makeup, but since then the Portland band just keeps getting better and better. Adding bassist Lynnae Gryffin and drummer Valerie Brogden to their ranks, guitarist Marc Swart and guitarist/vocalist Jessica Boudreaux have quickly become one of the best live acts in town, and their recent Take Me Out EP further ratcheted up the rawk goodness. With amps cranked full-blast and no shortage of attitude, Summer Cannibals offer a take-no-prisoners version of punky, good-time rock ’n’ roll. 9 pm
THE WOOLEN MEN The homegrown, nuggety rock songs of the Woolen Men sound like a collector’s trove of unearthed 45s from garage bands lost to the mists of time. With great riffs, catchy choruses, and quickstep energy gracing each one of their three-minute gems, the Woolies carry on the fi ne tradition of iconic groups like the Kingsmen and the Wipers. They remain one of Portland’s most consistent—and most consistently great— bands, and don’t carry a single ounce of pretense to muss things up. 10 pm
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26—CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6
THE CONSTANTINES
CHRISTOPHER WILLITS
All is right with the world again, for the Constantines have returned unto us. The Guelph, Ontario, band gave us four magnificent albums of raw, heartfelt rockers, and now they’re back to playing shows for the first time since 2010. In the interim, the group’s shadow has expanded, their honesty and conviction having grown in sharp relief to a shifting, ever-fickle music industry. Tonight, all that matters are the songs, and when a band’s got golden arrows like “Young Lions,” “Soon Enough,” and “I Will Not Sing a Hateful Song” in their quiver, not a heart in the room is going to leave un-pierced. 11 pm
San Francisco’s Christopher Willits is a staggeringly prolific artist, making sounds, films, and software that all inform a worldview of glacial, almost tectonic change. His music, made by guitar and laptop, contains subterranean echoes and orbiting spheres, with infinite dusks and dawns occurring over the course of a single piece. Willits’ electronic tones and radically altered guitar lines won’t just fire up your frontal lobes—they’ll stimulate every synapse in your entire nervous system. 10 pm
Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell
ANIMAL EYES The wide-open wild spaces of Alaska are writ large in the music of Animal Eyes, whose members trickled southward from the Last Frontier to make their home right here in the Rose City. With arty sonic jags and an all-encompassing, undiscriminating sound, the band casts cool breaths of wind upon each of their intricately layered songs, which somehow stay cerebral and complex even while instructing you, unquestioningly, to move your ass. 9 pm
SMALL BLACK Chillwave has more or less come and gone, but NYC’s Small Black is still standing tall, making dreamy, fanciful suites of lush romanticism. Last year’s Limits of Desire was a potion-like bath of synths and robot rhythms leavened with a very human touch, and this year’s Real People EP throws some nightclub sweat into the mix. Like neon waves crashing on a digital beach, Small Black’s synth-pop is soothing, beautiful, and unstoppable. 9:45 pm
MENOMENA Portland’s premier art-rockers, Menomena make a noise that’s impossible to adequately convey: A ruthless studio experimentalism and a progrock attention to detail imbue each album track with seemingly infinite layers, but the serpentine rhythms and left-turn digressions never steal away from their instinctual pop chops. 2012’s Moms caught Justin Harris and Danny Seim on the rebound of a lineup change, but the duo didn’t lose a step, resulting a fearless, mature work that pointed the way toward the future. 11 pm Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi
JACASZEK Polish electro-acoustic composer Michal Jacaszek doesn’t just straddle the divide between ambient and contemporary classical music, he finds their thick, gnarled common root buried deep below the earth. Indeed, his music is one of careful exhumation, as it invokes rain pitter-patter, abandoned hallways, and fingerprints left behind in years-long layers of dust. 11 pm Ash Street Saloon, 225 SW Ash
SARCALOGOS The pitch-black metal of Portland’s Sarcalogos will inspire dread and agony in even the most stouthearted listener, with piercing shrieks, demonic tremolo riffs, and drum-blasts that feel like the walls of the mausoleum are collapsing on top of you. Their suffocating sound, explored to terrifying effect on 2010’s In the Name of the Christ Killer, harbors no mercy. 9 pm
WITCHES MARK Like a wild ride on the chariot of Beelzebub himself, the music of power metallers Witches Mark is tethered to the hounds of hell, as their snapping, spit-flecked jaws crush around flesh and bone. The band—which hails from Austin, although guitarist/vocalist Robb Bockman comes from right here in Portland—brandishes a dizzying technical acumen that lends a sense of awe to their fearsome aggression. 10 pm
PANZERGOD Panzergod are not your father’s black-metal band. With corpse paint, inferno-like riffs, and a genuinely bloody-minded worldview, the Portland fourpiece invokes death and desolation with each assaulting sonic glimpse into the void. Panzergod’s tremendous 2010 album Forged in Grief is relentlessly bleak, with the stench of decay and death emitting from its rotting maw. 11 pm
PHILIP GRASS
SKELATOR
Each track from Philip Grass is a shuffled deck of electronic and jazz, slicing up smooth samples of lush piano, cooed voices, and ripe upright bass into stuttered, time-lapse grooves. The Portland-based duo of Burton Schaber and Ben Durfee has a truly deconstructionist, ear-tricking approach to composition, but their resultant work is irresistibly inviting: a stiff sonic cocktail that’s sweet, smooth, and eminently swallow-able. 9 pm
San Diego speed metallers Skelator will close an unforgettable night of relentless heaviness. Jason Conde-Houston’s operatic screams and the dueling guitars of Robbie Houston and Rob Steinway fuel a battlefield of epic proportions, holding true to the classic, diamond-hard sounds of metal yore while carving a path for metal’s future. We can only hope a glimpse of their upcoming King of Fear album isn’t too much to ask. Midnight ◆
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TEARS FOR FEARS
PHOTO BY ZOREN GOLD
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 Zidell Yards, 3030 SW Moody GUANTANAMO BAYWATCH Portland’s lifetime ambassadors of surf punk, Guantanamo Baywatch never fail to get a party started. Boasting a goofy, slimy twist on beach-blanket bingo, the group just recently played their first gig in Tijuana, which no doubt brought their energetic, acid-dipped live show to new levels of depravity. They’re the perfect band to kick off Project Pabst’s main event—just remember to pace yourself. Blue Ribbon Stage, 12:45 pm
inous, rhythmic “Jungle,” was even remixed to feature a cameo by Jay Z. Blue Ribbon Stage, 2:15 pm
VIOLENT FEMMES
K.FLAY Kristine Flaherty graduated from Stanford, but don’t expect K.Flay’s brash, melodic rap-pop to sound particularly studious. Rather, the producer/ emcee makes vital, passionate music that makes plenty of room for vibrancy in its thoughtfulness. K.Flay self-released this year’s Life as a Dog album, a sunny, self-aware recording that marries rap, electro, and pop-rock in an uncommon and uncompromising fashion. Captain Pabst Stage, 1:30 pm
X AMBASSADORS Widescreen rockers X Ambassadors grew up as townies in the college town of Ithaca, New York, but after the move to the Big Apple, things quickly fell into place. Signed to Interscope on the recommendation of Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds, they’ve garnered significant notice on a pair of EPs, and their recent collab with Jamie N Commons, the om-
VIOLENT FEMMES
HOLLY ANDRES
There isn’t a more perfect band to play a Pabst music festival than Violent Femmes, the greatest band to ever come out of Milwaukee—which, of course, is also the original birthplace of Pabst. The Femmes’ 1983 self-titled debut album remains an evergreen, a perfect distillation of punky, youthful rebellion and folk-influenced story-songs, and their current incarnation finds the band in peerlessly strong form. At the Sasquatch! Music Festival earlier this year, Violent Femmes opened their set with the immortal “Blister in the Sun”—so let’s assume you don’t want to be late to this one. Captain Pabst Stage, 3 pm
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GETTING TO PROJECT PABST
P
ROJECT PABST WILL take place in Portland’s South Waterfront District at the historic Zidell Yards located between the new Tilikum Crossing and the Ross Island Bridge. Zidell Yards is just 1.2 miles from downtown Portland and is easy to get to by walking, biking, and other public transportation options. Street parking and public parking are limited in the immediate Project Pabst festival area. We encourage all attendees to use alternate forms of transportation. If you do drive, please carpool to reduce traffic in the area and always choose a Designated Driver. Designated Drivers will receive complimentary soda and water at Project Pabst.
PARK & RIDE TO PROJECT PABST In collaboration with Project Pabst, Portland Streetcar has announced increased service and free rides (for Project Pabst ticket holders) to Zidell Yards over the festival weekend. To ride for free, just show your streetcar driver a valid Project Pabst ticket or Blue Ribbon wristband. Jump on the Portland Streetcar and head to the S.W. Moody & Meade South streetcar stop which drops you across the street from Project Pabst. The streetcar accommodates bikes and wheelchairs. For full details, streetcar map, and schedule visit: www.portlandstreetcar.org. To help limit traffic and parking congestion near the Project Pabst festival site, we encourage attendees to utilize public parking lots along the Portland Streetcar route, and take the complimentary streetcar ride to the festival. The recommended lots below are 24-hour lots and within two blocks of a Portland Streetcar stop. • SW 1st & Harrison – 1925 SW 1st Avenue • 1515 Market Square – 544 SW Market Street • YWCA 52 – 1005 SW Main Street • City Center Parking, Inc – 520 SW 10th Avenue
PARK & WALK TO PROJECT PABST Street parking and public parking are limited near the Project Pabst festival area in the South Waterfront area. We encourage you to use public transportation options or the bike valet. If you do drive, please carpool! There will be two designated Event Parking lots near the venue. • OHSU Schnitzer Parking Lot – 2650 SW Moody Avenue • OHSU South Whitaker Parking Lot – SW Whitaker Street @ Bond Street These lots will open at 11:00 am and close at 10:00 pm each event day. Overnight parking is not permitted. Event rates will apply and capacity is limited. The OHSU lots that are not listed above will not be available for event parking and any event vehicle parked there will be towed at the owners’ expense. There are additional 24-hour parking lots at Portland’s Riverplace, which is .6 miles away from Zidell Yards. Suggested Riverplace lots: • Riverplace at The Strand – 1852 SW River Drive • Montgomery Garage – 309 SW Montgomery Street Note: The parking lots listed above are not affiliated or managed by Project Pabst and listed for information only. Please read all posted signage for specific rates and hours of operation.
BIKE & SKATEBOARD VALET Project Pabst is proud to offer free bike and skateboard valet to all festival attendees. Look for directional valet and self bike parking signage as you approach the festival.
ZIDELL YARDS
Note: The parking lots listed above are not affiliated or managed by Project Pabst and listed for information only. Please read all posted signage for specific rates and hours of operation.
8 The Mercury’s Guide to Project Pabst
PROJECT PABST AT ZIDELL YARDS
GETTING INTO PROJECT PABST ENTRY Gates open at 12 noon and close at 9 pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Project Pabst is a 21+ event. All attendees must present a valid ID upon entry. Re-entry is permitted. To re-enter you must scan your ticket out before you exit, and re-scan your ticket in when you re-enter. You and your belongings will be subject to search upon entering the event. Be aware that some items may not be brought in. Please check our website for a full can/ can’t bring list. If you have any questions, email us at info@projectpabst.com.
WHAT YOU CAN BRING • Blankets • Soft-sided coolers no larger than a 12-pack size • Regular-size/unframed backpacks • Two factory-sealed water bottles up to 1 liter each • Empty Camelbak or other empty plastic container (i.e., Nalgene bottle) • Ice in soft-sided cooler or Camelbak - no large bags allowed • Binoculars • Personal cameras with a detachable lens 2 inches or shorter
WHAT YOU CAN’T BRING • Weapons of any kind • Illegal substances • Framed or large backpacks • Alcohol (beer will be sold at the festival) • Glass containers of ANY kind • Cans of ANY kind • Skateboards, scooters, or personal motorized vehicles • Strollers • Fireworks and explosives
• Instruments and laser pointers • Umbrellas • Picnic baskets • Lawn furniture • Chairs of any kind • Large or hard-sided coolers • Tents • Pets (Except animals that assist people with disabilities. Important to read Service and Support Animal Policy & Procedures.) • Video equipment - no video recording will be allowed • Professional still camera equipment with a detachable lens longer than 2 inches, tripods, big zooms, or commercial use rigs • Audio recording equipment • No illegal vending is permitted - no unauthorized/unlicensed vendors allowed
ACCESSIBILITY Zidell Yards is a large venue with notable distances separating each stage and attraction. The site’s terrain is gravel with varying grade changes. If you have any questions before the festival, please email info@projectpabst.com. If you need onsite assistance, visit the Info Booth and one of our festival staff members will be happy to help you.
CLEAN VIBES Project Pabst is excited to announce our on-site waste management partner, Clean Vibes. Clean Vibes’ mission is to actively encourage and promote recycling, composting and proper waste disposal at outdoor festivals and events - in this case, Project Pabst!
CONTACT US Questions? Comments? Contact us at info@projectpabst.com.
The Mercury’s Guide to Project Pabst 9
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27—DAY SHOW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 covers (2009’s To Willie, which found Houck & Co. meeting the Red Headed Stranger on equal turf). The Alabama-born, New York-based band has always been a live powerhouse—expect delicacy and thunder in equal measures. Captain Pabst Stage, 5:15 pm
RED FANG RED FANG Red Fang and Pabst have been inseparable from the days of their iconic video for 2009’s “Prehistoric Dog,” which sees the Portland stoner-metal band shotgunning PBRs in the car. Let’s just say that from there the beer doesn’t stop fl owing for a second, as the band crafts makeshift armor out of what must be hundreds of beer cans, and plays their ferociously galloping riffage knee deep in a heaping pile of empties. Blue Ribbon Stage, 4:15 pm
ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT Legendary San Diego punkers Rocket from the Crypt went their separate ways in 2005, but the band has seen fit to reunite, hitting both coasts of the US for the first time in many moons. While we’ve had no shortage of music from Speedo— AKA frontman John Reis, also of Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, and the Night Marchers—there’s something about the addition of horn players Apollo 9 and JC 2000 that pushes Rocket from the Crypt into timeless territory, marrying punk and old-style rock ’n’ roll in a way that courses with hot, racing blood. Blue Ribbon Stage, 6:15 pm
TEARS FOR FEARS
PHOSPHORESCENT PHOSPHORESCENT
STEVE GULLICK
Matthew Houck’s Phosphorescent continues to grow in complexity and range. 2013’s Muchacho, which stemmed from a breakdown, found the band’s biggest audience yet, and was a fi ne addition to a catalog that’s developed over the past decade to include quiet, disturbing folk (“Wolves” from 2007’s Pride), canyon-esque Neil Young and Crazy Horse rock (“Los Angeles” from 2010’s Here’s to Taking It Easy), and an absolutely brilliant album of Willie Nelson
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The hits that Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith recorded in the ’80s—“Mad World,” “Shout,” “Head Over Heels,” “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” the list goes on and on—weren’t just some of the biggest of that decade, they were some of the best. While the two spent the ’90s apart, they reunited for 2004’s Everybody Loves a Happy Ending and have another album planned for next year. As pop music continues to regurgitate itself, Tears for Fears’ brand of grandiose, sometimes melancholy, but ultimately humanistic song craft has cast an immense shadow over the generations that followed. These are tunes that we haven’t been able to shake free of, and why would we ever want to? As the opening line from “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” puts it: “Welcome to your life.” Captain Pabst Stage, 7:15 pm ◆
BUILT TO SPILL Crystal Ballroom
PHOTO BY STEPHEN GERE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 NIGHT SHOWS Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside
WOODEN INDIAN BURIAL GROUND With tense, borderline-psychotic riffs, trash beats, and strangled vocals, Wooden Indian Burial Ground’s lizard-brain psychedelia leaps and contorts like a holy roller in the throes of divine possession. The three-piece delivers transcendence in the form of garage-rock squall—all you need to do is to swallow your ticket and come aboard for a magical mystery tour of what the New York Times calls “euphoric dementia.” 9 pm
Dante’s, 350 W Burnside
BLACK SNAKE Like a desert mirage, the boulder-bash rawk of Portland’s Black Snake comes over you like a fever dream. Their tightly coiled, reptilian boogie packs a poisonous bite, though, evoking the firebrand metal of Southern bands like Baroness and the high-desert biker sound of classic stoner-rockers Fu Manchu. 9:30 pm
DEEP SEA DIVER With one-time Shins guitarist Jessica Dobson at the helm, Deep Sea Diver made a splash with their excellent 2012 debut, History Speaks. The group’s brand-new EP, Always Waiting, contains in its four tunes enough intrigue and inventiveness to fill up a full album. The tasteful, brainy pop that Dobson & Co. emit is full of intricate details but never loses sight of the big picture, making for warm, absorbing music for grownups. 9:50 pm
STONEBURNER
BUILT TO SPILL Built to Spill are Idaho’s greatest export—sorry, potatoes, you’ll just have to try harder—and their live shows are consistently reliable fonts of guitar-shred bliss. While we continue to wait impatiently for the follow-up to 2009’s superb There Is No Enemy, earlier this year the group released a spectacular rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Jokerman,” the latest in a fine tradition of BTS cover songs that outshine the originals. Built to Spill have evolved into one of the cornerstones of Pacific Northwest rock, and the chance to see their sixstring alchemy should never be missed. 11 pm
STONEBURNER The sludgy, cracked-earth mire of Portland’s Stoneburner makes for compelling listening, and their ambitious, hard-hitting Life Drawing album— released earlier this year—confirms their position as one of the most interesting heavy bands in town right now. Contrasting tense, atmospheric, quieter passages with explosive, bilious outbursts, Stoneburner is guaranteed to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. Well, not that they’ll be sitting. 10:30 pm
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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27—CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11
HIGH ON FIRE
RIVAL CONSOLES
Sleep’s Matt Pike jackknifed High on Fire into this world more than 15 years ago, but Oakland’s often imitated but never matched stoner metal legends have yet to show any signs of mercy. Pairing stoner-metal buzz with Lemmy’s amphetamine aggression, High on Fire recently released a pair of live albums (Spitting Fire Live, Vols. 1 and 2) that tie their impressive back catalog to the funeral pyre and set it alight. 11:30 pm
Ryan Lee West is the Englishman behind Rival Consoles’ curtain, a billowing fabric that rustles with moving cubes of multi-colored sound. The spacious, galactic noises West makes are of electricity turned into humanity, with faint ink stains of glitch and IDM lingering in the background. 10 pm
GREG GIVES PETER SPACE The collaboration of UK’s Greg Haines and Portland’s Peter Broderick, Greg Gives Peter Space explores the two composers’ recent interest in dub music—which is intertwined with their twin aptitudes for subtle, empathetic deconstructions of organic and electric sounds. There are goofy sounds and glimmers of traditional song craft in their debut EP, but they’re bounced against the rubber walls of dub’s reverb-padded cell and then rocketed off into outer space. 11 pm Ash Street Saloon, 225 SW Ash
BURIALS CRAFT SPELLS Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell
CRAFT SPELLS For the latest Craft Spells album, Nausea, songwriter Justin Vallesteros immersed himself in Emmit Rhodes’ peerless debut album and the solo efforts of Yellow Magic Orchestra. The melancholy but effervescent pop made by those maestros is a perfect touchstone for Craft Spells, which offers a subdued but winning variation on the low-key bedroom jam. 9 pm
SURFER BLOOD Pythons, the second full-length from Surfer Blood, tones down the arena bombast of their attention-grabbing debut album in favor of taut, tight pop, and it’s a good look for the Florida band. Indeed, evoking pop classicists like Squeeze and Weezer can never be a bad thing, and Surfer Blood actually have the tunes to back it up. 10:15 pm Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi
HEATHER WOODS BRODERICK Former Portlander Heather Woods Broderick— sister of Greg Gives Peter Space’s Peter Broderick—has circled the globe as a member of Sharon Van Etten’s band, but her 2009 debut solo album From the Ground is one of the most stunning, rewarding records to come out of the Rose City. Encompassing lilting folk, meditative classical passages, and an immersive ambient-sound landscape, it remains wholly breathtaking from start to finish. Although she remains much in demand as a musician-for-hire, one can only hope a second solo album from Heather Woods Broderick turns up before too long. 9 pm
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The cover art—by artist Joshum—of Burials’ head-splinteringly great second album The Tide depicts a figure about to be subsumed by a massive, black wave that arcs high above his head. Indeed, listening to the Portland prog-core metal band is like getting buried in a sonic avalanche, with blast beats, ferocious guitar needlepoint, and the alternating shriek-snarls and gutteral growls from vocalists Benjamin Caragol and Adam Wheeler. 9 pm
DEAD CONSPIRACY Pioneering death/gore metal group Dead Conspiracy first festered on the Portland scene in 1986, but after a two-decade-plus hiatus, the band is back and more vicious than ever. Although there’s poison and terror in their sanguinary sound, they never forget the fundamentals of classic thrash—no matter what, you gotta be able to bang your head. 10 pm
LORD DYING Lord Dying make sludgy doom metal sound so damn fine, you’ll want to rub its pestilence all over your chapped, broken skin. With lamb-to-theslaughter riffs and punishing timekeeping from drummer Rob Shaffer, the Portland four-piece boasts a must-see live show and a truly tight, confident grip on heavy music. 2013’s Summon the Faithless assured Lord Dying’s rightful place at the forefront of Portland metal. 11 pm
VEKTOR Tempe/Philly technical-thrash-metal champions Vektor are a metal aficionado’s metal band. Incorporating science-fiction storytelling and progressive-rock acumen, the band wields a precision that’s second to none, but this isn’t a case of guitar-clinic showiness—Vektor’s primordial heaviness is capable of melting cerebral cortexes into goo. Midnight ◆
MODEST MOUSE
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 Zidell Yards, 3030 SW Moody GRANDPARENTS The glowing, psychedelic sound of Portland’s Grandparents fully distills the elements of the Northwest into action-packed bursts of song. Whispering forest winds, volcanic mountain crags, and frigidly flowing river water all find ways into their adventurous, expansive sound. The sixpiece is working on their debut full-length, tentatively due out later this year, and it’s destined to send the local group onto the tips of the local music scene’s tongue. Blue Ribbon Stage, 1 pm
fect for whipping that head of hair back and forth. Troy’s dive-bombing guitar and Edwards’ tree-trunk smash makes for a rock spectacle not to be missed. Captain Pabst Stage, 1:45 pm
SPEEDY ORTIZ The noise pop of Northampton, Massachusetts’ Speedy Ortiz has echoes of the ’90s grunge and alternative-rock explosions, but the group, fronted by Sadie Dupuis, is fully momentous and up-to-the second. 2013’s Major Arcana LP is packed tightly with fuzz guitars and a very catchy but circuitous sound; 2014’s Real Hair EP finds the band incorporating contemporary pop and R&B into their sound to surprisingly successful effect. Blue Ribbon Stage, 2:30 pm
THE THERMALS
DEAP VALLY SOCRATES MITSIOS
DEAP VALLY The LA lady-duo of drummer Julie Edwards and guitarist Lindsey Troy makes howling, grooving bluesrock that doesn’t shy away from raunch. Their debut, Sistrionix, is a leather-jacket-and-jeans slab of basic riffs, crashing cymbals, and amplifier overdrive, per-
The trio of Hutch Harris, Kathy Foster, and Westin Glass plays music that’s fierce, sharp, and angry, but the miracle of the Thermals is that’s it’s also irresistibly loveable. With a six-album-strong catalog of gems under their belt, the Portland group is one of the most consistent, most compelling, and most generous bands around. They’ve explored difficult topics like politics and religion (2006’s The Body, the Blood, the Machine) and the dissolution of a destructive love affair (2010’s Personal Life), but the band’s live performances always feel like a big group hug, with indelible melodies and boom-crack rhythms smacking you square in the heart. Captain Pabst Stage, 3:15 pm
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The Mercury’s Guide to Project Pabst 13
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13
SHABAZZ PALACES
SHABAZZ PALACES
GZA
PATRICK O’BRIEN-SMITH
Ishmael Butler (AKA Digable Planets’ Butterfl y) and Tendai Maraire (son of Zimbabwean master Mbira player Dumisani Maraire) set the Seattle hiphop scene alight with a pair of EPs and the masterful 2011 album Black Up. Finding room for beat-infl ected poetry and avant-garde sounds within the cadences of the hiphop tradition, their sound is complex, shape shifting, and utterly unique. Their beats form like gaseous shapes on astral plains, ethereal yet full of whirling gravity, and their recently released second album, Lese Majesty, cements their position as some of the most forward-thinking minds in not just hiphop but all of music. Blue Ribbon Stage, 4 pm
LORD HURON
JESSICA YURASEK
LORD HURON Lord Huron hail from LA, but the sound of the Michigan lakes can’t be extracted from the songs of frontman Ben Schneider, who hails from the Wolverine State. The group’s 2012 album Lonesome Dreams incorporates global rhythms, prairie-folk campfire strumming, and a singular knack for earwormy melody, resulting in a dense sonic blanket of ravishing beauty. Captain Pabst Stage, 5 pm
14 The Mercury’s Guide to Project Pabst
GZA (PERFORMING LIQUID SWORDS) Even if GZA weren’t a member of the greatest rap group of all time (that’s Wu-Tang Clan, in case you weren’t paying attention) his place in the hiphop firmament would be assured on the strength of 1995’s classic Liquid Swords alone. His razor-sharp, preternaturally calm flow and producer RZA’s stark sonic backdrop makes for a pitchblack view of life in the city that still echoes true today. The album was subject to a deluxe reissue in 2012—complete with mini chess set—but there’s no better way to commemorate its achievement than seeing GZA perform the entire thing in the flesh. Blue Ribbon Stage, 6 pm
MODEST MOUSE It’s difficult to envision a world without Modest Mouse. The Issaquah-formed, Portland-based band’s twist on turn-of-the-millennium indie rock has become a keystone of the music landscape, and their wide-ranging sound—at times danceable and deranged, at others slow-building and dipped with dread—never fails to compel, sometimes even eliciting can’t-look-away car crash fascination. Fortunately, the band also knows how to invigorate and delight an audience with upbeat classics from their peerless catalog, and their excellent live sets are crash courses on the whirlwind drama of human existence. We’ve been waiting many years for the new record from Isaac Brock & Co., which they’ve been laboring over at their Portland studio near Providence Park, and while the full-length follow-up to 2007’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank isn’t quite on the horizon yet, the group debuted a handful of new songs during live sets earlier this year. Captain Pabst Stage, 7 pm ◆
www.thejwf.org
PHOTO BY MIRI STEBIVKA
PROJECT PABST IS PROUD TO SUPPORT::
The Jeremy Wilson Foundation d i
J
WF, A MUSICIANS’ nonprofit health and services organization supported by friends, family and fans, makes it easy to directly assist individual musicians and their families during medical emergencies.
THE TRUTH There is a lack of relief organizations assisting working musicians who, as members of the creative class, are often at high risk of serious financial harm in times of medical crisis. Often due to a lack of fundamental financial security, stability, and a professional business structure, many artists simply cannot afford basic health insurance. Musicians are considered self-employed and do not receive employee benefits from the record companies they serve or from the clubs and venues they support and are twice as likely as the general public to be uninsured.*
OUR MISSION The Jeremy Wilson Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit musicians’ service organization dedicated to providing emergency financial assistance in times of medical crisis and to improving the overall well-being of individual musicians and their families.
OUR VISION We are building an endowment fund called JWF Musicians’ Emergency Healthcare Fund to help provide a safety net for musicians and their families when they face debilitating medical crisis. The JWF also wants to create better access to resources and information to help improve the state of musicians’ health and healthcare, and in turn, their careers, financial and overall well-being. Core to our success is the continued development of exciting programs and revenue streams such as: our current fundraising and live event services geared towards individual musicians in need of immediate financial support; a new music publishing model called ONE SONG where songwriters, bands and JWF share proceeds from the sale and licensing of music; the production of large fundraising events such as our first annual Playing It Forward music auction set for Thursday February 12, 2015, at Crystal
Ballroom in Portland, Oregon; the establishment of strong partnerships with other nonprofits like the The Snowman Foundation; enhancement of the JWF website as a resource center for the music community; and eventually development of financial fitness education programs specific to this unique industry. We know this is a big endeavor and we believe that by working together with our local communities, and through musicians supporting musicians, we can continue to build an essential safety-net for these vital creative members of the local economy and community. Together we truly enrich and sustain our community’s cultural identity and support those who make the soundtracks of our lives.
IMPACT Here are some examples of how JWF has assisted musicians: • Gave out over $93,000.00 in assistance grants in 2013 • Helped one artist receive an eye transplant • Saved homes from going into foreclosure • Gave basic financial living assistance through long medical recoveries • Facilitated medical specialists even when they were out of state • Set up a Community Supported Agriculture membership and a new food processor • Help to recover from severe complications due to Crohn’s disease. • JWF even supported one musician through a nearly year-long recovery from a shoulder surgery that went septic. These are just a few of the stories. *Musicians Healthcare Survey
The Mercury’s Guide to Project Pabst 15
SEPTEMBER 26-28
ZIDELL YARDS CRYSTAL BALLROOM DANTE’S WONDER BALLROOM MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS ASH ST SALOON
PROJECTPABST.COM