Ethan Maffey

Mountain View graduate Ryan Barber has finally found a formula that works. After working for years to create the right sound, Barber has found chemistry with The Horde & The Harem.
The Seattle-based band, which will perform at The Horned Hand on Nov. 8, is gaining traction around the Northwest and at national festivals such as South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
Barber comes from an ever-growing list of former Bend residents who have gone on to find musical success in big Pacific Northwest cities. But before he was singing catchy pop choruses while playing guitar and trumpet with TH&TH, Barber was a Bend teen gaining street-smarts in popular local outlets for live music.

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.

Whatchewlookinat, sucka?
Fox and Women, who will play The Horned Hand on Oct. 18, derive as much inspiration from the words of existential writer Simone de Beauvoir as they do from any musical muse. Deeply rooted in the lyrics and string-laden music of this folk-pop band is the poetry of de Beauvoir’s writing, such as these lines from the novel “The Mandarins.”
“The streets would smell again of oil and orange blossoms, in the evening there would be light, people would sit and chat in outdoor cafes, and he would drink coffee to the sound of real guitars.”

There’s plenty of music out there fully capable of scaring the shit out of you. In fact you need look no further than Justin Bieber’s latest record for something truly frightening. If that doesn’t freak you out, put in Yoko Ono’s new album and turn it all the way up to eleven. Guaranteed to induce nightmares of one sort or another.
Still, there are great new albums that, while not necessarily as chilling as say, this year’s Wilson Phillips reboot, are in name, at least, perfect for the Halloween season. Here they are—insert evil laugh.

Pastels are super in right now, yo.
Hip-hop newcomer Macklemore has an edge when it comes to being a successful rap artist. The 29-year-old, born Ben Haggerty, stands out in the genre by resisting the status quo—he does not conform to an image in order to sell records.
One could argue that the deck was stacked against him when he started rhyming in high school. He was a scrawny white kid listening to Wu Tang Clang in Seattle, a city known more for grunge rock than an emerging hip hop scene. Yet, Macklemore developed a wicked quick flow and wrote personal lyrics about experiences in his neighborhood that eventually landed him regular performances at Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party.

If you’re feeling nostalgic, they sell tapes, too.
A couple weeks ago, a curious Craigslist ad about a new record store opening up in Bend was posted and just like that, our town doubled the number of places to buy quality vinyl.
Recycle Music L.L.C. opened the doors to their store—located at 3 NW Bond St. across from Strictly Organic Coffee on Saturday Sept. 29. So far, owner Keith Schuman has been pleased with the response.
“You never know if it’s going to be a stampede or a trickle,” said Schuman about the opening. “Usually the reality is somewhere in the middle and so far I’ve been very happy.”

The North, Canadian rock pioneers Stars sixth album.
Toronto-born Stars is part of the Canadian synth-rock collective that spawned other well-known bands like Broken Social Scene and Metric. Together with those bands, Stars has put Canadian music on the map. As a result, bands from other countries, like Australian band An Horse, have relocated to the country to live and record.
So it’s fitting that their latest work, The North would again lead the way. The sound lead members Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan offer is supple, malleable and a guide for other musicians in their region.