Music

On Friday night, Ben Harper will appear at the Les Schwab Amphitheater for his first Central Oregon show in five years. Touring in support of the classically rock and roll album, Give Till It's Gone, which came out in May, we wanted a chance to chat with Harper – one of the most skilled guitarists and songwriters of the past 15 years – about coming back to Bend, his big album and what's in store for one of the busiest men in rock. Our request for an interview, however, was turned down. But we weren't going to let that stop us…
the Source Weekly: Give Till It's Gone is an excellent album and might be the best thing you've done – with or without the Innocent Criminals – in about a decade. Did you sit down and say, “Damn it, I'm going to write an awesome fricking album,” and then just go and do that? Because that's sort of how it seems.
Ben Harper: Unavailable for comment.
tSW: I hate to bring up a sore subject, but you and actress Laura Dern split recently after five years of marriage. The divorce was public, as these celebrity breakups tend to be, but there's also been indications that Give Till It's Gone, your recent incredibly strong blues-rock-meets-everything-else-tour-de-force, tackles some of the emotional fallout from that split. I would imagine that divorce was, and still likely is, quite awful, but it sure as hell gave you material for a great record, didn't it?
BH: Unavailable for comment.

Some people live in Bend. Other people are from Bend and they'll let you know about it.
David Alexander, who you're more likely to know as The Dirtball, belongs to the latter faction and despite the fact that he's a successful solo rapper in addition to belonging to a highly popular hip-hop collective, The Kottonmouth Kings, he has no plan to make anywhere besides Central Oregon his permanent home – when he's not on the road, that is. Sure, he played to about 18,000 people at the notorious Gathering of the Juggalos last weekend (more on that in a bit) and could be living large in Los Angeles if that was his goal, but The Dirtball is a Bendite and he's thankful for that.

For a band like The Devil Whale, making it in today's music business means not just putting out an excellent full-length album, like the Salt Lake City indie folk act did this spring, but also putting in some serious miles on the road and obtaining more than a few bruises along the way.
Not all trips are as smooth and low impact as the string of free shows The Devil Whale is playing throughout Oregon as part of McMenamins' Great Northwest Music Tour. For example, sometimes a band like this, which plays highly melodic throwback folk rock, will get booked in the middle of a death metal lineup. This actually happened to the men of The Devil Whale and as front man Brinton Jones can tell you, it wasn't exactly an ideal gig.

I've never been struck by lightning and with statistics on my side, I'm going to guess that neither have you. But the last time I saw The Shins I was moderately concerned that I was going to move from the “not been struck by lightning” majority to breathe the rarified air within the “has been struck by lightning” fraternity.
If you were at this show back in August of 2007, you weren't just a potential victim of nearby lightning storms, but you also saw one of the last performances by The Shins. And not just in Bend, but anywhere, because in the last few years, The Shins, which were at one time the definitive indie-pop rock band out there, have undergone lineup changes, breakup rumors and, of course, front man James Mercer's new career as part of Broken Bells.