The Source Staff

Emma Hill: Always up for a good disguise.The last time Emma Hill played Bend, she told us about touring the West
Coast by bus - Greyhound bus that is. We caught up with Hill on the eve
of the release of her new record and a release party at the Tower
Theatre and learned that she still plans on touring by bus this summer.

But this time it's her own bus - a "short bus" she bought from a
church group in Arizona and plans to outfit with some personal touches
before she and her band crisscross the country…after finishing up the
school year at Portland State, of course. Transportation changes are
not the only shift for Hill since she packed the Silver Moon in January
of 2008, as evidenced by her new album, Clumsy Seduction. The record
showcases the 21-year-old's gradual shift from songwriting darling to
folk powerhouse. On Clumsy Seduction, Hill is backed by a six-piece
band, thus changing the name of her act to Emma Hill and Her Gentleman
Callers, and also allowing her to push her style closer to that of Neko
Case (and sometimes Jenny Lewis) and away from the whimsical folkie she
played (and played well) on her earlier release, Just Me.

Take a look at that trimmed up Vince Herman. Never a bad time to polish up a taxi.

Sunshine, lollipops and plenty of feedback.The last time the Pink Snowflakes played in Bend, they brought their
bubble machine madness to Players Bar and Grill for a set of the
Portland band's quirky and loud-as-hell psychedelic rock. Back in town
this weekend, the band has covered some new ground since the last
visit, mainly in the form of a trek down to Austin, Texas where they
added their name to the list of 1,800 some bands that performed at the
storied South by Southwest festival.

For a band that seems to pride
itself on weirdness, the Pink Snowflakes kept it true to form at SXSW -
where guitarist Tom McGregor admits the band had "no idea what we were
getting ourselves into" - playing a show at a venue that professed a
"clothing-optional" policy.
"We figured it out a week or two
before we left and thought it would be perfect because we're all about
the slightly weird and thought it would be great to be listening to
this loud, crazy psychedelic rock and freaking out to it," says
McGregor over the phone from his Portland home, "But there only ended
up being one guy naked and it was the guy in charge."