Sound Stories & Interviews

You. the oxford. jazz. it’s all coming together.
Kicking off this winter’s Jazz at the Oxford series, Bend will be treated to performances from renowned blues singer/songwriter/harmonica player Curtis Salgado and rootsy jazz crooner LaRhonda Steele.
Salgado was the inspiration for John Belushi’s The Blues Brothers; you can’t get much more legendary than that. Belushi and Salgado even palled around on stage a time or two, performing Salgado’s revivalist blues and soul. Salgado has been praised as one of the most passionately soulful singers of his day and his vocal and harmonica skills are always backed by a smoking hot band of top-notch musicians. In 2010, he was awarded the Blues Foundations Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year award.

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.

1. Bon Scott – The quintessential rock star, Scott was AC/DC’s original gravel voiced front man. While he may not be the greatest artist to cash in his chips prematurely, his flameout meets all the criteria to get top billing. Scott and his band were at the top of their game, just entering the prime of their career having just recorded and toured on the seminal Highway to Hell. He overdosed on alcohol, which is a feat in itself. And he did it in a parked car outside a nightclub. It just don’t get more rock star, folks.

On the surface, not much changes from seasonal festival to seasonal festival here in Bend. Like clockwork, streets are closed off, artisans sell their wares, food carts sprout up and music is played.
It’s really the lineup of bands that makes one festival better than another. This year’s Fall Festival, held Oct. 5, 6 and 7 in downtown Bend, is poised to stand out. Expect to see some of Portland’s best talent, funk from 3,000 miles away, and a favorite local band that’s been away far too long.

If you’ve ever watched a high energy Southern Baptist preacher or even remember the Arsenio Hall character Reverend Brown from Coming to America, you’ve got an idea what to expect when Tango Alpha Tango lead singer Nathan Trueb takes to the rock-n-roll pulpit at Bend’s Fall Festival Oct. 6.
Trueb will make you believe in something, namely the power of rock. He uses his marauding, almost Bob Dylan-like voice and restless stage presence to infuse TAT shows with a certain larger than life fearlessness. Backed by a group of unassuming rockers that include his wife Mirabai on bass guitar and his brother Aaron on keyboards, Trueb is clearly the lead performer here. It’s a skill that, early on, caught even him off guard.