Music

You should see his underwear. The word "psycho" conjures many images: psycho killer, psycho ex-girlfriend/boyfriend, psychosomatic, psychologist, psychosexual, any number of suffixes will bring about an exponentially larger number of thoughts. When you attach -billy to the prefix, the visuals shift to a highly stylized music genre, which is succinctly defined by the band Tiger Army.

The trio made its stage debut in 1996, sharing a stage with nouveau goth/emo/hairspray legends AFI at the infamous Gilman Street Project in Berkeley, Calif. Tiger Army linchpin Nicky 13 formed the band out of Influence 13, bringing band mate Geoff Kresge with him, assembling a crew that has changed throughout the years, but maintains the highly stylized visual and musical aesthetic that is psychobilly. The hair is pompadoured, the arms are heavily tattooed (these guys love the ink), jeans are pegged and the bass is upright. Tiger Army is like the sober, more cynical California cousin of The Reverend Horton Heat's Texas rockabilly legacy.

Psychobilly revels in the rock-and-roll lifestyle through ballads about Betty-Page-styled beauties that drive hearses from the graveyard to the chapel and back to the crypt, peeling out in the face of the undeserving dudes-the dudes that ditched them on prom night. The world of the Psychobilly is full of supped-up classic cars, high heels below pencil skirts listening to classics like Social Distortion and the Cramps. While we might miss out on a whole host of musical styles, Bend has actually been host to numerous psychobilly acts throughout the years including the Danish Nekromantix, Sweden's Horrorpops, So-Cal's Chop Tops and, of course, Tiger Army.

Vandals shirt meets acoustic guitar. That’s a good way to describe Matt Lewis.Matt Lewis and his band live in Utah and they don't have a problem with that. Some musicians might think of Provo, Utah as about the last place they'd want to call home base. Hell, some folks, buying perhaps a bit too deeply into Utah's ultra-conservative reputation, might not even be aware that rock music is even allowed within the state - forever banned in some sort of sweeping Footlooseian state mandate.

That's not the case, because if it were, the Matt Lewis Band wouldn't have cultivated the funky rock vibrations that have earned them the ability to tour nationally, along the way selling a few thousand records without any record label support.

"It's been really difficult at times and it's also been really easy," the 30-year-old Lewis says of playing music in Utah.

"I hated growing up here as a kid because I thought the place was just so conservative. As I've grown up I've really, really started to love it here," he continues. He goes on to discuss his youth listening to punk bands like Rancid, NOFX and Social Distortion

Fiddler in the greens.I hadn't exactly heard The Sweet Harlots when I arrived at a classically cozy house near Harmon Park. I'd heard of the duo, and I'd heard music by each of the members of the group, but it isn't until Laurel Brauns begins strumming her guitar and Julie Southwell commences massaging melodies out of her violin in the living room of the aforementioned house that I fully taste the Sweet Harlots.

The two names of this duo should be familiar to anyone with an ear on the local music scene. Brauns is a singer-songwriter who toured through Bend over the past few years before moving here last fall and releasing her indie-rock influenced folk record Closed for the Season. Southwell, of course, is the seasoned and classically trained violinist who has played with a range of local acts including Moon Mountain Ramblers, Blackstrap and David Bowers. The two met while cross-country skiing this past winter and their friendship soon descended from the mountains to Southwell's home for the practice sessions out of which the somewhat peculiarly named Sweet Harlots were born.
"It was always a dream of mine to have an all-girl band and call it The Sweet Harlots. People don't use the word 'harlot,' in everyday conversation…there's definitely some irony to it," says Brauns.

If you’ve got this much blood on your clothes, laundry probably isn’t your biggest problem.This week, two longstanding, albeit utterly different, popular music acts will arrive in Central Oregon to either get your fist pumping or your cowboy boot covered toes tapping. There's Brooks & Dunn, the popular country icons of the Coors Light genre, then there's Alice Cooper the original androgynous vampire, who now at 60 years old, isn't all that scary anymore. Here's how they look head to head - so pick your act and stick beside 'em.
Alice Cooper: Known for his pre-goth heavy rock.
Brooks & Dunn: Known for their Wal-Mart Country at the Honky Tonk.

Alice Cooper: Hit songs include: "Schools Out," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "I'm Eighteen."
Brooks & Dunn: Hit songs include: "Boot Scootin' Boogie," "My Maria," "Hard Workin' Man."

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.

Emo Idol, POp god, or Freedom Rocker? You decide. but choose wisely.When it comes to indie rock credibility, a few names come to the forefront: Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie), James Mercer (The Shins), Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) and Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes). A marketing explosion later, it's all major label contracts, national tours and MTV face time for these bands. And Oberst has been riding shotgun throughout.

True to rock star form, Oberst snubbed this paper for an interview, stating that interviews and press were not part of the tour agenda for his new musical venture, Conor Oberst and Mystic Valley Band. (Actually, he's not doing ANY press for the tour, so we can't feel that bad.) He did however snub Portland, giving Bend the only Oregon date - a surprising coup for our little Midtown venue.

It’s a new venture for alt/pop/emo-god Oberst. His backing "Mystic
Valley Band" was pieced together from seasoned musicians that have
either recorded on one of his labels or supported him on tour. Included
in that mix is Rilo Kiley drummer Jason Boesel. A mature and
refurbished Oberst has emerged with his Mystic Valley Band and an album
full of songs that demonstrate truly polished emotion and lyricism, a
direction that properly post-scripts Bright Eyes. The songs "Lenders In
the Temple" and "Eagle On A Pole" are complete audible testament to
that evolution and embrace a 1960s folk revival. The album comes across
as a sort of cut and paste of everything I appreciated about Bright
Eyes and surprisingly more than I expected from Oberst.