We'd get in a photo booth with these guys.
It’s the obvious angle to take—hometown kids learn to play guitar, move to the big city, form a band, eke out a living, get discovered, make it big and then get rich.
The six guys of Portland band Adventure Galley—comprised of 67 percent Mountain View graduates from Bend—are somewhere between struggling to survive and getting discovered on that arc. The cool part about this story, though, is Adventure Galley has all the rock-n-roll tools necessary to eventually snatch that happy ending.
With only an EP under their belts, called “The Right Place to Be,” it’s the craft of performing that helped them win a MySpace contest and record deal in 2010. As a result, the band is finally in position to release a full-length album later this year.
We strongly recommend checking them out at Liquid Lounge Friday, Oct. 19. This will probably be one of the most fun shows of the season, as hometown friends and fans pack it in to sing along with the lyrics of their older stuff and go crazy for the fresh tunes.
The commodity that Adventure Galley trades in is straight synth-rock. No gimmicks, no silly boy band frills. So even though My Space is mostly a thing of the past, the music Adventure Galley creates is ready for the future with its dance beats and electronic feel. The gentlemanly voice of lead singer David Mills stands as a strong pillar amidst the cascading synth, fiery guitar and power percussion. It’s the kind of take-notice music that also got them international recognition when they were featured on mega-blog The Hype Machine.
The songwriting for all this can get pretty eclectic, said drummer Brock Grenfell.
“We don’t have one way of songwriting,” said Grenfell during a recent phone interview with the Source. “Usually songs start and end with David and Aaron [Johnson], but sometimes we’ll just be jamming and come up with the instrumental version of a song.”
The band’s multi-instrumentalist George Schultz agreed.
“There are six of us, so there’s a lot of diversity in the songwriting,” said Schultz. “The impression I get is that the songs are capturing a psychological feeling.”
Schultz is right when it comes to the band’s first hit, “Addict.” A song with an aggressive chorus, poppy synth and sparkly drums, “Addict” floats through the theme of repetitive destructive relationships by using the imagery of kicking a can down the street.
In Adventure Galley’s first single, “Weekend Lovers,” off the yet-to-be-released album, the band duplicates that approach. Lyrics like “I am the king of thieves who stole the stars, million dollar moments are now ours,” poetically capture the butterflies of a tryst. It’s a savvy song filled with playful beats that deals with all of the good from a fling and none of the fallout. It also has a wicked cool video filled with people covered in neon and lit up with black lights.
When that debut album does get released, the band, which has already been named to Paste Magazine’s top 10 bands from Oregon, may find themselves closer to the apex of a success story. It’s a ladder Schultz says the band is ready to climb in due time.
“As soon as we can move to Europe or an island in the Caribbean, we’ll be there for sure,” said Schultz.”
Photo taken by Adventure Galley.
Adventure Galley
9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19
Liquid Lounge
70 NW Newport Ave.
$5 at the door
