posts about music

KUFO GONE replaced by right wing idiots!

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Thats right, Portland’s only real rock station is gone replaced by right wing nut jobs Lars Larson and Glen Beck broadcasting on KEX FM. Well all you rockers who hated KUFO because they weren’t rock enough got your wish as they are no longer playing music.

this was posted on the front page at KUFO.com

This has happened before. Back in 1982, 83 ?? FM 101.1 then KRCK was replaced by a classical station. the owner owning 5 classical stations plus KRCK did not like KRCK’s rock/heavy metal format. so I remember going to sleep listening to Accept, Iron Maiden, and Led Zepplin, then waking up to some violin orchestra crap. Don’t get me wrong now, classical music has its place, just not no my favorite metal station.

Same goes for this change, talk radio has its place just not on KUFO, and to replace the music with Glen Beck and Lars Larson is shameful. These people are crackpots that want to destroy America.

This just makes me sad, so, no matter how bad you thought KUFO was, what we have now is infinitely worse.

Ex Alice in Chains Bass Player Mike Starr Dead at 44

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He just couldn’t leave it. I remember when AIC kicked him out of the band for drug abuse in 93. He stopped over at my friends house in Seattle all upset that he was not in the band any more. Sadly this did not get him clean and now he has followed in the footsteps of Layne Staley.

More at MTV

More at Rolling Stone

More at TMZ

More at OMG

Alice in Chains first video with both Mike and Layne. When I first saw this on MTV, I was blown away. Shortly after that I saw them open for Megadeth, I think, in the Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

 

Stephanie Schneiderman launching a Kickstarter campaign!!

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Today Stephanie Schneiderman launched a Kickstarter campaign!! Kickstarter (for those of you don’t know) is an online funding platform for artists to raise money for their projects. Stephanie in the process of finishing up her new CD, Rubber Teardrop. Stephanie has been collaborating with Keith Schreiner (trip-hop DJ/producer from Dahlia) and… they’re almost done! She is using Kickstarter to raise the remaining money needed for recording, mixing, mastering and manufacturing. She is asking for your help to complete the CD!

Stephanie is offering LOADS of rewards including CD’s, Live DVD’s, private concert tickets and more!!! “I’ve got 30 days to raise the money but my goal is to fund the project within the first 72 hours! So, if you’re planning on participating, please do so today!!” says Stephanie.

CHECK OUT HER KICKSTARTER VIDEO featuring Stephanie and Keith, as well as music from the new CD-
Here’s the VIDEO LINK

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1602255562/rubber-teardrop

 

Results of The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra 17th Annual Young Artists Competition

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THE VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CONGRATULATES
PERFORMERS OF 17TH ANNUAL YOUNG ARTISTS COMPETITION

Totaling $5250 in cash awards

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra winners of the Young Artists Competition Sunday, February 27th

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra winners of the Young Artists Competition Sunday, February 27th

(Vancouver, WA)  The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra concluded its seventeenth annual Young Artists Competition Sunday, February 27th at TrinityLutheran Church, Vancouver, WA. In each of three instrument categories, first, second and third place winners were selected, with each receiving monetary awards. First place recipients will perform with The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Salvador Brotons, April 9th and 10th at Skyview Concert Hall,Vancouver, WA.

Piano

  • 1st – Alexander Zhu                                 $1000
    Teacher – Kelli Stephens
    Rachmaninoff Concerto No.2, op. 18, 1st Mvt.
  • 2nd – Ruta Kuzmickas                              $500
    Teacher – Jean-David Coen
    ravel, Piano concerto in G major, 1st Mvt.
  • 3rd – Sherry Liang                                  $250
    Teacher – Barbara Parker
    Saint-Saens Piano concerto No.5, Mvt. 3

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Woodwinds/Brass/Percussion

  • 1st – Kenneth Fukumoto, Alto sax              $1000
    Teacher – Phil Baldino
    Concerto for Alto Sax, Glazunov
  • 2nd – John Church, Trombone                   $500
    Teacher – Henry Henniger
    Concertino for Trombone, David
  • 3rd – Nick Rector, Trumpet                       $250
    Teacher – Paul Nickolas
    Arutunian Concerto for Trumpet

Strings

  • 1st –  David Kim, Cello,                            $1000
    Teacher – Hyun-Jin Kim
    Saint-Saens, Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor
  • 2nd – Lauren Siess, Viola                          $500
    Teacher – Ann Medellin
    Walton Viola Concerto, 2nd Mvt
  • 3rd –  Kristin Qian, Violin                          $250
    Teacher – Carol Sindell
    Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, 1st Mvt.

The nine finalists were chosen from thirty-seven entries submitted between October 2010 and January, 2011. Finalists were then judged on interpretation, technique, dynamics and overall musicality. Young Artists performed live in front of an enthusiastic audience of over 200 and a panel of five judges, music professionals from the Vancouver/Portland area. Judges included:

  • Sharon Hinckley
  • Tatiana Kolchanova
  • Don Appert
  • Igor Shakhman
  • Jim Obanian

David Smith, VSO board member, emceed the event and was preceded by Larry Easter, member of the Friends and long-time supporter of the Young Artists Competition.
Tickets for the April 9th and 10th concert are now available online at www.VancouverSymphony.org. The April concert will also include A. Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, narrated by All-Classical FM’s Edmund Stone, and Beethoven’s Symphony No.8, Op.93 in F major.
The 2011 Young Artists Competition was sponsored by Friends of The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. “Generosity of spirit is the commonality that men and women share in the Friends organization,” said Linda Odenborg, Chair of the dedicate group. “We believe in giving back through Education Outreach programs and fundraising events.”

Additional supporters of the Young Artists Competition included Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Liu. Proceeds from Virtuoso Music for Two Pianos, performed by Michael Liu, Fred Lu and Kate Hobbie January 9th at Sherman Clay & Moe’s Piano, Portland, Oregon also assisted in supporting the February 27th competition.
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is a 70-member professional orchestra presenting international guest artists and varied programs, October through May. The concert season includes live classical performances led by Maestro Salvador Brotons as well as special events such as the successful February 12th performance of Aaron Meyer & The Vancouver Big Band, or the upcoming In-School concerts. Visit www.VancouverSymphony.org for tickets and information.

 

STOLEN GUITARS Taylor 414ce & Fender Telecaster (Seattle)

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I saw this on Craig’s list thought maybe I could help by posting it too.

Date: 2011-02-27, 8:58PM PST
Reply to: sale-dfty6-2238433013@craigslist.org

Hey, thanks for looking at this post.

These guitars were stolen out of my car in the university district of Seattle on Sunday morning between 02:15am and 03:30. The exact location is 52nd & 16th. 

An Ibanez bass guitar was also taken with my two guitars. But, I’m not able to offer as much of a detailed description on that, and the two guitars are worth much more to me.

1. Taylor 414ce w/back hardshell case 2007
Serial #20070711044

2. Fender Telecaster 1971 reissue
Crafted in Japan 2004
Milk wash/white finish w/white pick guard
the pickups were upgraded with Seymour Duncan Antiquities
Serial #R????? (Don’t have it on hand, but I remember it starts with an R which correlates the make to 2004)
I bought this guitar in Japan.
It should be in a Fender tweed hard case with red carpet inside.

Tell me you have them and I’ll buy them back. No questions and no cops.

  • Location: Seattle
  • it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
image 2238433013-0 image 2238433013-1

PostingID: 223843301

 

Sweden-based post-punk/melodic pop outfit THE BELL to release “Great Heat” on Badman Recording Co.

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On April 11, 2011, Portland and San Francisco-based independent recording label Badman Recording Co. will celebrate the release of The Bell’s “Great Heat,” the latest from a Sweden-based post-punk/melodic pop outfit.

Listen to “thebell_today“ from the new album Great Heat.

Samples of previous press for The Bell:

“Hot Indie Rock” feature – iTunes

“I Am History finds singer Mathias Stromberg waxing philosophic in a cold-wave deadpan that sounds like a less throaty version of House of Love’s Guy Chadwick.” – NPR ‘Song of the Day’

“No matter what comes next, I get the feeling a lot of people will be paying attention.” – KEXP ‘Song of the Day’

Hailing from Malmo and Stockholm Sweden, The Bell are a three-piece with a penchant for memorable melodies and drum machine-driven, classic, alternative songs. Vocals and instruments are shared by the trio of Nicklas Nilsson, Mathias Stromberg, and Jan Petterson. Though they live many miles apart, they co-wrote and recorded “Great Heat” together through e-mail, electronic file exchanges, and Skype.

“Great Heat” is the follow-up to their strikingly good 2007 release “Make Some Quiet.”

Being a band living in separate cities does have its challenges. All was going splendidly while recording the album until it came time to sequence it.

Nicklas says: “We were mainly working through mail and chat and I guess we should have had some more calls or a meeting to clear things more easy. A couple of days into the process everything went chaos. We rapidly cycled through stages of consensus to massive conflicts. Beasts from a biblical hell took turns in throwing series of harsh words at each other and I recalls some gloomy but now amusing quotes”:

“OK, I quit the band!”
“You can do whatever you want with that record. I’m not in it any more.”
“You can redo the vocals yourselves. I am not going to give in to just anything.”
“Fuck this! It’s really not worth it.”

“I am not sure how it happened,” he continues, “but we finally ended up with the first sequence that we had came up with and we are all very happy with it now. The group’s wiry and catchy post-punk pop has had some significant success with sync placements on television. Vampire Diaries, MTV:s Jersey Shore (we agree that one’s a bit weird) as well as the ABC shows Greek and Kyle X/Y have all featured tracks from the debut Make Some Quiet.”

Singer Mathias Stromberg cuts through like Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, The Editors’ Tom Smith or Julian Cope (The Teardrop Explodes).

Instrumentalists Nicklas Nilsson and Jan Petterson keep the music tense and propulsive. One is occasionally reminded of favorite, seminal band’s – such as Maps, Stars, Magnetic Fields and The Cure when spinning their music.

But, “Great Heat” comes with a more developed sound than their previous, wonderful offering, and leads like a trip through computerized sounds and a balanced choir of voices to support the nostalgic glam-rock style.

The riffs, the strings, the cold vocals – it’s all there. Colored with the brilliant splashes of history this is a new and fresh take on the breathy 80s daydream. “Great Heat” delivers an immediate impact of songs that stick in your head after just one listen.

CD Release Show… Hello Morning @ Mississippi Studios, March 4th!

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On March 4th, Portland, Oregon-based Hello Morning (Henry Curl, Kevin Breuner, Ben Sims, and Peter Swenson) will celebrate the release of their debut full-length, “A Fiction,” at Mississippi Studios.  Also on the bill are The Dimes and Steve Tayor (of Rogue Wave).  Cover is $7 advance, $7 day of show.  Doors at 8:30pm, show starts at 9pm.

In scope, palette, and composition, “A Ficiton” is a more daring and successful leap for a band that already kickstarted their career with a promising, self-titled debut EP.

Musically, Hello Morning both polished and expanded their approach on “A Fiction,” as compared to their self-titled debut EP, retaining their majestic, uplifting sound on tracks such as “The Fear,” a postmodern mid-tempo anthem with a deep pocket.  And, “A Good Year,” a minor key whirlwind which calls to mind Death Cab and Interpol. The striking new sound of the band becomes more evident on “Letters,” which seamlessly merges a double-time drum machine, a live dub drum beat, and haunting guitars that sound like icicles and arctic wind. All the while, Henry Curl, gifted with an effortless and emotive voice, sings a Neil Young-ian melody. The song evokes unsent letters and unrealized dreams. “All I Knew,” one of the last songs to be written, sprang to life one magical night and stands as the album’s emotional highlight, going from a widescreen velvety throb to a psychedelic freak out, in the course of seven electric minutes.

The songs that comprise “A Fiction” have a shared emotional state and narrative threads – love, trust, commitment, and communication between friends and lovers, both real and imagined.  The result is a diverse collection of modern rock explorations, the recording of which was entirely funded by Hello Morning’s loyal fan base via a Kickstarter campaign.

The band launched a fan-funding campaign, spread the word, and their fans heeded the call, exceeding the goal with time to spare. In turn, the band found they could then record an entire album’s worth of songs, so they booked extra studio time, recording again at Secret Society with mixing from Jeff Stuart Saltzman (Death Cab For Cutie, Menomena, Decemberists) and Kyle Lockwood (Climber), who also makes a guest appearance playing strings.

Each of the members of Hello Morning have spent years in various rock, pop, electro-pop, and folk outfits. Now scene veterans, they’ve come together to form a band that can do things their way, with the wisdom and talent earned by experience, but with an excitement and focus on exploring what guitar-driven rock can still be, can still say, can still do, and discovering new ways to transmit that sound. Following the successful reception of Hello Morning’s debut EP, the band spent the year playing shows around the Northwest with international touring bands such as Two Door Cinema Club and Wang Chung, as well as local favorites like Climber, Crosstide, and Mnemonic.

Blind Pilot To Support The Decemberists On Upcoming European Tour

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Portland, OR-based Blind Pilot, who are currently in the studio recording their second full-length album, will support The Decemberists’ upcoming European tour.  The tour begins on March 4th in Dublin, makes stops in many UK cities as well as Amsterdam and Antwerp, and concludes with a show on March 16th at Hammersmith Apollo in London.  See below for a full list of tour dates.

The band’s debut, 3 Rounds and a Sound, earned Blind Pilot coverage on national radio (NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “All Songs Considered”), and national television (“Last Call with Carson Daly”). The album received praise from USA Today, the Boston Globe, the New York Post, Wired Magazine, AM New York, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, which calls the music “a rustic reverie.”

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Comprised of founding members Israel Nebeker (vocals, guitar) and Ryan Dobrowski (drums), Blind Pilot is rounded out with Luke Ydstie (upright bass, backing vocals), Kati Claborn (banjo, dulcimer, ukulele, backing vocals), Ian Krist (vibraphone) and Dave Jorgensen (keyboard, trumpet).

“…the songs on its marvelous debut, 3 Rounds and a Sound, are uniformly sturdy and sweet, drenched in brightly rustic instrumentation and some of the sweetest harmonies this side of such likeminded peers as The Avett Brothers and Fleet Foxes.” – NPR Music

“Blind Pilot’s music is full of exhilarated weariness and the kinds of detailed insights into the subconscious and all of the other hidden regions of the mind and heart…” – Daytrotter

TOUR DATES:
3/4/11 – Vicar Street – Dublin, IE
3/5/11 – Barrowlands – Glasgow, UK
3/7/11 – Birmingham Institute – Birmingham, UK
3/8/11 – Bristol Academy – Bristol, UK
3/10/11 – Manchester Academy – Manchester, UK
3/11/11 – Leeds Academy – Leeds, UK
3/12/11 – De La Warr Pavilion – Bexhill, UK
3/13/11 – Trix – Antwerp, BE
3/14/11 – Paradiso – Amsterdamn, NL
3/16/11 – Hammersmith Apollo – London, UK

Nick Christmas RIP (former drummer with Norman Sylvester)

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Nick Christmas, known to Portland blues music fans as the drummer for the Norman Sylvester Band during the late 80s and 90s, and more recently as the drummer for Blues Train, has died. Nick had recently retired from the Bonneville Power Administration, and was enjoying spending his time with his children and his drums. A man with a huge smile and huge wrists, who always declared his love for people, Nick’s sudden loss leaves a huge painful hole in the lives of his family and friends. He will be sorely missed.
The following account was published in the Oregonian:
Nick Christmas III, 63, of North Portland, was found in a vehicle that rolled down an embankment off North Portland Road, south of North Marine Drive, according to the Portland Police Bureau. Reports about the vehicle came in at about 7:15 a.m. Saturday.
Investigators believe Christmas was traveling southbound on North Portland Road when he lost control of the vehicle on the icy roadway. The car hit a concrete barrier and then rolled several times before landing on its side in a ditch. Police said speed and road conditions contributed to the crash.
Emergency responders said the vehicle appeared to have been there for some time before officers learned of the crash. Police have not said exactly what caused Christmas’ death. North Portland Road was closed briefly Saturday while police investigated.

The Slants battle with U.S. Patent and Trademark Office over the Group’s name

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Portland, Oregon-based Asian American dance-rock band The Slants’ trademark application for their name, “The Slants” has been rejected by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on the grounds that the term is deemed to be disparaging to persons of Asian descent and not sufficiently embraced by the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community. The dispute began last year and now the band is preparing for an appeal of the decision.

The decision was reached by the Trademark Office despite evidence filed by the band’s attorney, which included numerous articles by the Asian American media supporting The Slants, the band’s involvement with dozens of API cultural festivals and non-profit organizations, and legal declarations from several well-respected leaders of the API community.

Spencer Trowbridge of McNamer and Company, the law firm representing The Slants, says that “this is a case where the government is making a decision about how members of a minority group can define themselves. The U.S. Government shouldn’t be in the business of making those kinds of decisions. The determination of whether a specific term or phrase is disparaging can only be made from the point of view of the referenced minority group.”

The band has made a name for themselves through playing hundreds of rock clubs, anime conventions, and Asian American cultural festivals across the country. In addition, the band is widely known as an advocate for Asian American rights, being involved with numerous API organizations and charities. The Slants have travelled throughout North America presenting racial justice workshops, inspiring youth to reconsider stereotypes of Asian Americans, and to take pride in their cultural heritage. They’ve been featured and supported by the largest Asian American media figures and press in the country, including Asian Week, angryasianman.com, the Asian Reporter, Koream Magazine, and many more.

The Trademark Office responded to the Asian media attention on the band by stating that though the aims of the band “may be laudable… rarely does an article introduce the band without commenting on the controversial nature of the band’s name.” Elsewhere in the rejection the office cited examples from wiki-articles as evidence that the name belittles the Asian American community.

“What they don’t understand,” writes The Slants’ manager Simon Tam,” is that the community is demonstrating their support for our efforts by promoting the band to begin with. It seems that they consider the weight of anonymous wiki-sites to be of greater importance than the voice of the Asian American community itself.”

Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons, a coordinator for the Asian Pacific Network of Oregon and longtime policy advocate for the API community, states that “the use of the name The Slants by the musical group of that name does not disparage or offend the Asian and Pacific Islander community, both because of the explicit claiming of the term in a collective sense and because of the obscure nature of the term as a racial epitaph. The reclaiming of an obscure term that has been used to discriminate has a constructive impact when used by a group that also self-identifies as Asian and/or Pacific Islander.”

“As a Japanese-American, and lifelong activist within the Asian American community, I do not consider The Slants’ use of their name disparaging,” writes community leader Mari Watanabe. She continues, “The name is being used in a self-referential manner, carrying a message that promotes Asian culture. This use does not disparage Asian identity; it celebrates it.”

The band also cited numerous cases of other Asian Americans using the term in a manner accepted by the API community at large such as The Slant Film Festival, a documentary of Hollywood racism entitled “The Slanted Screen,” Chicago Asian American TV show “The Slant,” and popular Asian magazine, “Slanted,” when filing their response to the initial rejection of the mark. In response, the Trademark Office simply replied that The Slants’ “arguments have been considered but are found unpersuasive.”

The band is currently working with their attorney on preparing an appeal and seeking help from individuals or organizations who would like to assist. Interested parties should contact Simon Tam at theslants@theslants.com