Blog: opbmusic

We'd been waiting for Wampire to come around to something for what seems like forever, so it was a pleasant surprise earlier this year to hear that they'd not only be emerging at long last with a full-length debut, but that they'd be doing it on Polyvinyl (home to the likes of STRFKR, The Dodos, Generationals, among others). The resulting Curiosity came out this week, and among its standouts is this cut from Wampire's early days-- a slightly slicker, better produced take on the still-woozy "Orchards." The new video from director Daniel [...]

Devendra Banhart hits Portland and the Crystal Ballroom next Wednesday, May 23rd, touring with his latest and eighth studio recording, Mala . The Nonesuch debut has been called his best work in a decade. We're proud to be presenting the show (also including opener Rodrigo Amarante), and here's your chance to win a pair of tickets! Enter your information below and click "submit" for a chance to win. Deadline to enter is this Friday, May 17th at 5pm. Winners will be notified by email. One entry per [...]

• Nonesuch Records - Devendra Banhart: "Never Seen Such Good Things"

Those of you who've been breathlessly awaiting news of White Lighter , the previously announced second full-length from Typhoon can either breathe a little easier or go into full hyper-ventilation mode depending on your perspective. The band released details today about the release, coming August 20th via the L.A.-based Roll Call label. Even better, they've also offered up a second song from the record: "Dreams of Cannibalism" follows last fall's "Common Sentiments" and is available for stream and/or download below. Last we saw Typhoon, they [...]

• Typhoon - Dreams Of Cannibalism

Portland artist Ashleigh Flynn was a guest on OPB Radio's Think Out Loud last week, where she talked about her songwriting and what inspired the songs on her new record, A Million Stars . Listen back to the show here . opbmusic produced these videos of Flynn performing "Prohibition Rose" and "A Little Low" in the studio. Ashleigh Flynn performs at Wallace Park for the Portland Parks Summer Concerts on July 11th, and at the Oregon Country Fair July 12 and 13. [...]

About 11,000 people flocked to the Memorial Coliseum on Saturday to soak up wisdom from the Dalai Lama during his visit in Portland. After His Holiness gave a final farewell, and received thunderous applause like a rockstar himself, the Red Hot Chili Peppers presented to the enlightened audience a one hour set which showcased their dizzying collection of hit songs. "The Dalai Lama was supposed to sing background on that one," joked bassist Michael "Flea" Balzary after playing "Can't Stop" from their 2002 album By The Way . At 50 years of age, Balzary and frontman Anthony [...]

Photo: Inger Klekacz Portland singer-songwriter Alela Diane returns with a new record next month. About Farewell comes out June 25th on Alela Diane's label, Rusted Blue Records. This month, she plays an intimate show with two other Portland songwriters, Vikesh Kapoor and Barna Howard, May 19th at Portland Playhouse . It's a 7:00pm, all ages event, in the former church, turned theater. Tickets? We have some to give away, courtesy of Mama Bird Records. Enter your information below and click "submit" for a chance [...]

Portland artist Ashleigh Flynn is on Think Out Loud today (OPB Radio, noon-1pm), performing songs from her new record A Million Stars . That record features Todd Snider and members of The Decemberists, and songs that tell stories of pioneer women and the West. Tune in to OPB Radio to hear the segment, and if you have a good question for Flynn, call in. Here's a list of OPB Radio frequencies and the link to live stream the show. We'll post video of today's performances on opbmusic.org next [...]

Fresh from their six hours of "Sorrow" over the weekend, The National have shared the first video from the upcoming Trouble Will Find Me , out May 21st. "Sea of Love" is assuredly not a verson of the Phil Phillips classic (although we've no doubts The National would do just fine with it), but instead the de facto title track to the new album. Sophia Peer directed the video, which in a strange twist is apparently an homage of sorts to a video made in the mid-90's by Russian act Zvuki Mu [...]

Back in 2004 , none of the visionaries who started PDX Pop Now! in festival form (an evolution from its late 90's incarnation as a listserv) likely had much of an idea what it would become.Ten years later, it's become all they probably hoped and then some. The gear up for this year's edition of the all-local, all-ages summertime rite that is the festival (not to mention the compilation) begins in earnest Thursday night with Make It Pop at The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel ( full details ). The annual fundraising event [...]

Most-played on opbmusic this week: 1. Telekinesis: Dormarion 2. Kurt Vile: Wakin on a Pretty Daze 3. Palma Violets: 180 4. Phoenix: Bankrupt! 5. Daft Punk: Random Access Memories 6. Pickwick: Can't Talk Medicine 7. Josh Ritter: The Beast in Its Tracks 8. Phosphorescent: Muchacho 9. Cayucas: Bigfoot 10. Generationals: Heza 11. Junip: Junip 12. The Thermals: Desperate Ground 13. Devendra Banhart: Mala 14. Johnny Marr: The Messenger 15. Cloud Cult: Love 16. Jake Bugg: Jake Bugg 17. Thee Oh [...]

Most-played on opbmusic this week: 1. Junip: Junip 2. Palma Violets: 180 3. Devendra Banhart: Mala 4. James Blake: Overgrown 5. Charts: Vacation EP 6. Telekinesis: Dormarion 7. Phosphorescent: Muchacho 8. Local Natives: Hummingbird 9. Phoenix: Bankrupt! 10. Johnny Marr: The Messenger 11. Pickwick: Can't Talk Medicine 12. Low: The Invisible Way 13. Kurt Vile: Wakin on a Pretty Daze 14. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Mosquito 15. Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside: Untamed Beast 16. Marnie Stern: The Chronicles of Marnia [...]

Tonight (Thursday), Art Beat profiles Black Prairie . What began as a (mostly instrumental) side project by members of The Decemberists has grown into its own as one of Portland's bigger touring acts, playing festivals including Bonnaroo and Newport Folk Fest this year, with two records released -- including last year's fine A Tear in the Eye is a Wound in the Heart -- and a penchant for wistful, beautifully arranged folk ballads often featuring singer Annalisa Tornfelt. Jule Gilfillan produced this feature on the band, and it's showing tonight on [...]

Nick Jaina 's certainly no secret in these parts, as he consistenly pumps out hummable, likeable songs that find their way into our heads long after listening. For the May version of NPR Music's "Heavy Rotation" feature, we picked Jaina's song "Don't Come to Me," from his new release Primary Perception . It's one of five tunes picked by public radio DJs around the country, all of which you can download now, including songs from Laura Mvula, Shuggie Otis, Ellis, and Savages. Get it here . Photo from Jaina's 2010 opbmusic session [...]

Shy Girls are Best New Band 2013, according to Willamette Week 's annual poll of Portland's muscial movers and shakers. On the strength of their lone 4-song recording Sex in the City , and a sultry, groovy live presence, the band that began as Dan Vidmar's one-man bedroom act impressed mightily. We featured them as headliners for our PDX/Rx bill back in December, and also in our studios for a session you can revisit below (including the unreleased "How to Really Someone"). We summed Shy Girls up thusly at the time: [...]

• Shy Girls - opbmusic session

A new Laura Marling record, even as regular as they seem to be happening, is always cause for excitement in our book, which means we're genuinely stirring now with the unveiling of this new short film featuring the first four cuts from her upcoming Once I Was an Eagle. "When Brave Bird Saved" is the work of frequent Marling collborators Fred & Nick, who offer up a sensual and not necessarily linear quartet of pieces to accompany "Take the Night Off," "I Was an Eagle," "You Know," and "Breathe," (the last of [...]

It's PDX/Rx time again! Our free monthly showcase collaboration with Mississippi Studios rolls back around this Sunday night. As usual, it features a fine bill of up and coming talent , this time with a wrinkle: Brooklyn's CHAPPO heads the bill with Portland acts The Lower 48 , Yours and Slim Fortune . Doors at 8, show at 9, all of it FREE! We hope to see you out, come say hi! Here's CHAPPO's inventive animated video [...]

Sigur Rós return in June with their seventh full-length, Kveikur , marking a quick turn around on the heels of Valtari , out just last summer. It doesn't take long for the new material to separate itself from that record's mostly subdued ambience-- "Ísjaki" rises to rather glorious heights over the course of its five minutes. Have a listen... As luck would have it, the only two U.S. dates announced so far on Sigur Rós' extensive upcoming tour are both in the Pacific Northwest: May 25th at [...]

Woodwind experimentalist extraordinaire Colin Stetson returns next week with New History Warfare, Vol. 3: To See More Light , another collection that finds him taking his primary instrument (the bass saxophone) to unexplored realms. There are more elements of pop song structure this go around thanks to the vocal presence of Bon Iver's Justin Vernon on a handful of tracks, but it's not exactly the saxophone the pop music world has been known to embrace, either. Not far-removed from Sigur Ros' whale songs, this new cut from Stetson is set against the sea's black and [...]

Keep track of these animals: Cat Doorman is the new children's project from former Quail and current Golden Bear Julianna Bright, who released the Cat Doorman Songbook earlier this year as a companion piece to an iPad app she designed called "Little Red Wagon." OPB's Arts & Life featured the project recently, and you can read all about it here . They also captured the live version of Cat Doorman, made up of an all-star cast: Bright along with husband and fellow Golden Bear [...]

Richie Havens , the man who helped set the tone at Woodstock by serving as the iconic festival's opening act in 1969, died earlier today at his home following a heart attack. He was 72. ( More via Yahoo ).