Mike Bookey

Ties it all together. It's been almost a year since organizers of the 4 Peaks Music Festival stood onstage at the end of New Monsoon's headlining set and took a bow. They'd taken a ranch in Tumalo and turned it into a certifiably well-done music and camping festival - the only such event of its size in the region - and produced a vibe that was like a county fair for people (from kids to the silver-topped tourists) who would never dream of going to a county fair.

In a letter to neighbors of the pastoral Tumalo area neighboring the farm deemed "Rockin' A Ranch," 4 Peaks organizers announced last week that the 2009 festival will move to a yet-to-be-announced location for the festival's third installment. Wherever the festival lands, it's sure that this down-home vibe will follow, which is something any music festival strives for - a sense of identity in a crowded summer music market place.

Along with massively expanded campgrounds and a new site plot, the festival also wrangled in some larger scale touring acts (Zilla, Flowmotion, Hot Buttered Rum, and, of course, Poor Man's Whiskey, among others) while remaining within its means and also true to roots and jam music genre on which it was built. Tea Leaf Green is at the top of the bill for the festival, taking the penultimate lineup slot on Saturday night. The San Francisco piano-driven jam rock quartet released a new record (Raise the Tent) this week and their stop off at 4 Peaks is just one of the band's festival shows this summer, a season that saw them taking the stage at big-name events like Rothbury, Floyd Fest and the Mile High Music Festival, among others. Tea Leaf Green might be the reason a good handful of music nuts from Bend and far beyond flock out to the 80-acre ranch, but the quartet might not be what people walk away talking about. There's sure to be some chatter about the Everyone Orchestra, the band comprised of, well…just about everyone that is set to close out 2008's 4 Peaks Festival and basically tie the whole two-day shindig together.

Dang, the Melvins sure look excited to be here.Dale Crover is one of the fiercest rock and roll drummers of the last 20 years, but you'd never guess it by his supremely subdued demeanor as he chats from his home in Los Angeles. The thundering Melvins' beat keeper talks humbly about the band's new record, Nude With Boots, but seems more inclined to talk about the demise of analog tape, musical history, or likening a touring band to a Major League Baseball team.
 
After some discussion of sea-side Puget Sound fishing towns, we finally begin talking about Nude With Boots, an 11-track album that features a quintessentially big-and-heavy Melvins sound, that some critics have referenced as the band's 19th record. The number is impressive in its own right, but Crover says the figure needs some tweaking.
"I think it's more than that, actually. I kind of stopped counting after a while. It's been a lot, but I think we've probably made a record for every year we've been a band," Crover says of the band's 24-year career and corresponding 24th record.

Hey mr. Dj.The mix tape. You made them on your twin cassette boombox with your massive ear goggle headphones in your locked bedroom. They were two sided, magnetic labors of love. The goal was to amass a cohesive and unique string of tracks that made for perfect listening - it was all the music that was fit to go on tape.
 
The venerable DJs of Bend are debuting their mix tapes ("mix CDs" actually, but "mix tape" is much cooler to say) and obviously the product they're peddling is far more expertly produced and artistically presented than what you threw together on your ghettoblaster - but the idea is still there. Almost a year after the closing of the Grove, the unofficial (or perhaps official) nest of Bend's DJ culture, the familiar DJ names reappear at the Tulen Center for a two-room show to display their new wares.
One of Bend's elder statesmen of the ones and twos, Brian Barisone (DJ Barisone), just finished up work on his mix tape aptly titled "Boombox," and sat down to talk before heading over to the PoetHouse for an Elevate Underground Art Festival fundraiser that featured the return of fellow beatsmith DJ Lacuna.