Band Fam: Hush Records

From Americana to indie punk, a pioneering label’s umbrella of producers, friends, and players stretches far and wide.

Hush Records, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, was founded by painter Chad Crouch. The label mostly releases beautiful orchestral indie folk from local bands, including some of the first material from The Decemberists.

Podington Bear is Chad Crouch’s alias, under which he released 156 electronic pop songs for free via podcast throughout 2007.

Corrina Repp is known for her sparse, warm, and “quiet” singer-songwriter pieces. One of Hush’s first artists, she has guested on numerous Portland bands’ records over the last 10 years, including The Decemberists’ 5 Songs.

Tu Fawning is the brainchild of collaborators Corrina Repp and Joe Haege, with Liza Rietz and Toussaint Perrault. The band has an indie-meets-cabaret feel, anchored by Repp’s trilling vocals and a rich, melancholy tone.

Ape Shape is a punk-funk-meets-reggae party band in which Tu Fawning’s Toussaint Perrault used to play trumpet. They have since broken up, and Perrault has made a solo record as Babydollar$.

31 Knots was formed in 1997 by Joe Haege, bassist Jay Winebrenner, and drummer Joe Kelly (who is now half of Panther). They make rhythmically charged math rock that veers between frenetic and atmospheric.

Much of 31 Knots’ 2005 album, Talk Like Blood, was recorded at Portland studio Type Foundry, where Spoon, Glass Candy, Swords Project, and many others have recorded.

Adam Selzer of Norfolk & Western started Type Foundry in 1997. Norfolk & Western is a seven-piece folk ensemble that plays viola, theremin, saw, Victorola, and many other classic instruments.

Jason Powers, an engineer at Type Foundry, does sound at local club Holocene and also tours with Talkdemonic, who make “folktronic hop” with programmed beats and a viola.

Talkdemonic, Swords, and many others record for Brooklyn-born, Portland-bred record label Arena Rock Recording Co.

Swords, formerly known as Swords Project, is an amorphous band that began serving up punchy, dramatic post-rock in 1999. Liza Rietz plays violin and accordion in the group.

Haunted troubadour Amy Annelle (a.k.a. The Places) is a former member of Swords who now makes campfire folk. She has played with members of The Thermals, Norfolk & Western, 31 Knots, and Jackie-O Motherfucker.

Sub Pop outfit The Thermals are Portland’s indie-punk icons, known for their political lyrics, straight-forward riffs, and explosive, inspiring live performances.

Post-riot grrl outfit All Girl Summer Fun Band purveys happy candy pop on K Records. Kathy Foster of The Thermals plays drums and bass and sings in the band.

The Decemberists make lush, literate indie-folk ballads. They graduated from releases on Hush and Kill Rock Stars to become major-label pop darlings.

Illustrator Carson Ellis designed the cover of The Decemberists’ 2006 album The Crane Wife (Capitol).

The Crane Wife was co-produced by Tucker Martine (with Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla), a producer, composer, and musician who records as Mount Analog.

Singer/guitarist Laura Gibson is known for her fragile indie folk. She is currently working on a new record with Tucker Martine at his Flora Studios in Portland.

Avant-electronic artist Ethan Rose is working on a record with vocalist Laura Gibson. He also contributed a song to the soundtrack of Gus Van Sant’s 2007 film Paranoid Park.

Gus Van Sant is a director famous for such indie film hits as Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and Good Will Hunting. He moved to Portland in the mid-’80s and has many of his films take place there.

The trio Menomena, whose members played Christian rock in the ’90s, makes intensely layered indie rock that’s more accessible than their post-rock peers. Their song “Strongest Man in the World” is featured on the Paranoid Park soundtrack.

Menomena was borne out of drummer Danny Seim’s solo project Lackthereof, a bedroom project that melds electronic bleeps and quiet strums with Seim’s melancholy vocals. July’s Your Anchor (Barsuk) is Lackthereof’s ninth album.

Craig Thompson frequently does artwork for Menomena, and was nominated for a “Best Packaging” Grammy for the cover of their 2007 album, Friend and Foe. Thompson is a cartoonist best known for his 600-page autobiographical graphic novel, Blankets.

All Smiles is the solo project of Grandaddy’s Jim Fairchild, who has also played with Modest Mouse and Earlimart. His latest album of guitar-driven pastoral pop, Oh For the Getting and the Not Letting Go, will be out soon.

Grandaddy is a Modesto, CA band known for combining folk and rock with electronic touches and exploring the relationship between man, technology, and nature. Core member Jason Lytle produced M. Ward’s and Kyle Field’s 2000 album (as Rodriguez), Swing Like a Metronome. Grandaddy broke up in 2006.

M. Ward is the stage name of creaky-voiced Matt Ward, an indie folk artist beloved by Bright Eyes, Meg White, and the actress Zooey Deschanel, with whom he performs as She & Him. His timeless guitar folk has made him one of Portland’s best-known pop exports.

Viva Voce makes poppy indie rock in the vein of The Shins. The band is husband and wife Kevin and Anita Robinson. They played in the original lineup of Lackthereof.

Barsuk is a Seattle, WA-based indie rock label.

FILMguerrero is a small Portland label that releases records from Menomena, Mount Analog, Norfolk & Western, and more. They are distributed by Barsuk.

John Askew runs FILMguerrero. As Tracker, he makes meandering lo-fi guitar and ambient music, including the soundtrack to Craig Thompson’s Blankets. He is also an engineer at Type Foundry studios.

Named after a classic arcade museum in San Francisco, Musee Mecanique combines vintage sounds from the 1900s with modern synths to create a music-box feel. Their recent debut, Hold This Ghost, was produced by Tucker Martine.

Loch Lomond is many-headed Hush Records band that makes chamber folk for forest elves.

Renaissance man Nick Jaina plays drums, guitar, and keyboard, among other instruments. He also designs show posters and is currenty pursuing a solo project that involves ballads, lullabies, and multiple collaborators.

Nick Jaina, Matt Dabrowiak, and Paul Alcott comprise the now-defunct Binary Dolls, an electronic-meets-instrumental band that’s at once a jazzier Radiohead, a sprightlier Interpol, and a more vocal Tortoise.

Dat’r is Matt and Paul from Binary Dolls’ electronic project with live drums, beats manipulated by joysticks, and surprising vocals that range from raps to deconstructed glitch hymns.

Deadbeat “Night Stepping”

Deadbeat’s Scott Monteith, a life-long Canadian and recent Berlin transplant, has been releasing his minimal dub and house juice for labels such as Cynosure, Musique Risquee, ~scape, and Spectral, among others, since 2000. “Night Stepping” is a minimal dub number off his most recent offering, Roots and Wires. The song ripples warmly with low-key vibes and a comfortable tempo punctuated by muted blips of cheery synth, intricate clicking and reverberated clacking. Deadbeat’s grooves are alive and kicking. Words by Lulu McAllister. Photo by Lars Borges.

Night Stepping

Lemonade Releases Remixtape

My, but those Lemonade guys are impatient to get some remixes of their self-titled debut album out. Lemonade has only just been released, but the trio already dropped a reworking of the album’s single, “Sunchips,” and this morning announced an entire remix tape is available with purchase of the album. Contributions from Bay Area cohorts like Lazer Sword, C.L.A.W.S., and the aforementioned Ghosts on Tape make up the tracklisting, so perhaps the project is partially a nod to the band’s former S.F. homebase, which they’ve just left en route to New York.

They won’t stay long in the Big Apple though. A handful of show dates playing alongside El Guincho are slated for November, after some obligatory CMJ showcases.

Remixtape
01 “Sunchips (Bookworms Rmx)”
02 “Blissout (Soft Thing Remix)”
03 “Real Slime (Mashepest Remix)”
04 “Real Slime (Stay High Remix)”
05 “Big Weekend (Delorean Remix)”
06 “Big Weekend (Yao Remix)”
07 “Unreal (Roche Remix)”
08 “Sunchips (Ghosts on Tape Remix)”
09 “Real Slime (C.L.A.W.S. Remix)”
10 “Realslime (Lazer Sword Remix)”
11 “Blissout (Shades Remix)”

Dates
10/24 Brooklyn, NY – Zebulon (CMJ)
10/25 New York, NY – Piano’s (CMJ)
11/23 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle*
11/27 Toronto, ON – El Mocambo*
11/28 Montreal, QC – Les Saint*
11/30 Philadelphia, PA – The Barbary*
12/02 New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge

* = w/ El Guincho

Deerhunter “Little Kids”

The physical disc of Deerhunter‘s third full-length, Microcastle, is still slated for a release date of October 28 in North America and October 27 throughout the rest of the world, but due to internet leak drama earlier this year, most fans have already heard and made a call on the band’s latest offering. Few would argue it’s not a straightforward indie rock affair, heavily influenced by Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound side project, which has occupied much of his time of late. The gauzy arpeggios and effects-laden guitar chords on this track remind of 2008’s Let the Blind Lead Those Who See but Cannot Feel, while the wistfully repeated chorus, “to get older still”, is, in typical Cox fashion, as moving as it is cryptic. Photo by Kasey Price.

Deerhunter – Little Kids

Late of the Pier “The Bears are Coming (Emperor Machine Remix)”

The original version of this track says much in favor of the argument that Nottingham, U.K.-based outfit Late of the Pier isn’t just another dance-rock foursome to be written off in the blink of an eye. In fact, the track is less dance-rock than it is experimental pop that explores the possibilities of both guitars and laptop-generated sound on an equal level, and it’s fun too. Andy Meecham (a.k.a. the Emperor Machine) chose to focus on the more electronic side of things for this remix (hardly a surprise), stripping the vocals, upping the snares, slowing the tempo, and letting the whole thing ride to a grinding halt at the end. It’s a much more haunting affair than something you’d throw on at an afternoon house party, but nonetheless shows off the band’s versatility when it comes to the remixes. Photo by Jon Bergman.

Late of the Pier – The Bears Are Coming Emperor Machine Remix

What You Talkin’ Bout, Willits? Part 5

Guitarist and electronic musician Christopher Willits returns from tour to continue his monthly series from SoundArts studio. In this episode, Willits explains automation clips—setting them up, as well as their role in recording and playing live.

Tune in once a month as Christopher shows us some of the ways he produces his own music, as well as the many cool things you can do with recording software. According to Christopher, “I simply want to excite people’s imaginations and creative process so they can more easily create the sounds and music and art they love.”

The Streets Everything is Borrowed

Mike Skinner is turning 30 this year and he’s already hit his midlife crisis. Six years ago, the rapper/street poet raised a pint to the British teenage wasteland; now he’s a graying curmudgeon watching the world go on without him. “Just when I discover the meaning of life/They change it,” he laments on the title track. Elsewhere, he breaks bread with the damned and tells them, “I want to go to Heaven for the weather/And Hell for the company,” while he daydreams of paradises lost in the eloquent closer, “The Escapist.” Unfortunately, The Streets’ formula of choppy garage breaks and Greek chorus vocals are recycled again and rendered less memorable. However, Skinner is still a mature, agile storyteller who rarely wastes a lyric–he’s come a long way from rapping about PlayStations and brandy binges.

Pierced Arrows: Reviving a Dead Moon

Four months: That’s how long Fred and Toody Cole needed to realize that vacationing from rock ’n’ roll just wasn’t for them. After kicking out 20 years’ worth of jams, the married couple–the lowest of the lo-fi, keepers of the Portland punk crypt, and aging DIY figureheads–decided to put their band Dead Moon to rest in the autumn of 2006. All that touring had finally taken its toll on drummer Andrew Loomis’ aching legs and despite a late commercial peak that included the release of both a documentary film and CD anthology, the Coles just felt it was time.

Four months of silence was just about all they could handle.

“By the time spring hit we were just antsy as hell to start doing something again,” says Toody Cole via telephone from the family compound just outside Portland in Clackamas. “It’s like… cabin fever. Fred started writing some new songs and as soon as he gets three or four in the bag, it’s like, ‘Okay, I don’t want to hear what it sounds like when he’s just fiddling around on acoustic guitar. I want to hear some volume here. I want to hear some noise.’”

The resulting “noise” would be the psychedelic ooze from which a new band sprung forth. With self-taught hellion Kelly Halliburton on drums, Pierced Arrows was conceived in the spring of 2007. And Mr. Cole, still the primary songwriter, has been churning out more of the soulful but mangy riffs–as well as a series of seven inches to harness them–that helped Dead Moon develop such a rabid following.

“Fred is really coming up with some wild shit now,” says Toody. “None of us really know, in the traditional sense, what we’re doing. I think that’s why it works.”

But if the reaction Pierced Arrows has received since unleashing their fresh new live set locally is any indicator, another long ride may be in order. “The first gig we played here in town, we were all nervous as hell,” says Toody. “We figured we were going to work our way up the pecking order over the next sixth months to a year. Well, that lasted three gigs and we were headlining again.”

In addition to rediscovering their slapdash groove, the Coles have also taken to the road in a way much different than you might expect: marathon running. Both Toody and Fred ran races together in the early ’80s with their children, and Fred aims to complete the Portland Marathon before his 60th birthday arrives this year. It’s yet another chapter in the couple’s life story, one that’s again rife with wounds and bruises. “Everybody forgets how physical playing and singing at the same time is. Touring is one grueling thing–like running three marathons back to back,” explains Toody. Which begs the question: How much fuel could they have left in their tanks?

“Fuck, I don’t know,” Toody laughs. “The way it feels now? Shit, another 10 years anyway.”

Favorite Portland artist:
Chris Newman Experience.

Late of the Pier Plan Shows, Album Details

Though they won’t be venturing out of the North Eastern part of the country this time around, those lovable lads in Late of the Pier are finally taking their live performance Stateside, with three shows slated for the end of the month.

The performances come just a short time before the release of the U.K.-based foursome’s debut full-length, Fantasy Black Channel, which we’ve been hearing bits and piece about since we profiled the band earlier this spring. The group rolled drums, guitar, bass, synths, and an MPC into tracks on the album, which was produced by Erol Alkan and will be unleashed January 13.

Meanwhile, catch the boys at one of the three dates below.

Fantasy Black Channel
01 Hot Tent Blues
02 Broken
03 Space and the Woods
04 The Bears are Coming
05 Random Firl
06 Heartbeat
07 Whitesnake
08 VW
09 Focker
10 The Enemy are the Future
11 Mad Dogs and Englishmen
12 Bathroom Gurgle
13 No Time (Hidden Track)

Dates
10/22 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of WIlliamsburg
10/24 New York, NY – Irving Plaza
10/25 Philadelphia, PA – Transit

Tell the World

Vivian Girls are headed to a party! The trio spends the first part of this video driving through some seriously lo-fi landscape, tuning up their instruments, before dropping into the woods to play for some boys, girls, and a giant stuffed bear. The fairly understated visual affair is paired up nicely with the lazy, summery jams from the Brooklyn-based trio, who makes a mission of steering clear of melodrama.

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