Sound Stories & Interviews

While for some, Toad the Wet Sprocket might fall under a collective '90s era “oh yeah I remember that song, who sang it?” genre, muddled with contemporaries like the Gin Blossoms, or later Dishwalla, the band continues to have a strong loyal fan base and cult following. This is noteworthy for a group that hasn't released an album of new music since the late '90s. Though they may be best known for their 1994 hit “Fall Down,” the group is far from alternative in the Pearl Jam/Nirvana sense of the term, residing closer to the calmer, less angry sounds of Counting Crows or REM.
Formed in 1986 when Santa Barbara-area high school friends, singer Glen Phillips, guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning, and drummer Randy Guss started the band, they were widely successful in the early 90s. The band's sound – and perhaps also its bizarre name – appealed to a large audience, propelling them to mainstream radio play. Inspiration for the band's name came from a Monty Python sketch. British comedy writer and Monty Python troupe member, Eric Idle, wrote a fake music news sketch that included the band name that he thought, at the time, was so ridiculous no one would ever use it.

“So give me an idea of how this thing will work. When does it start? What's the format?” I ask, partially because I'm a reporter and I'm supposed to ask things like that, but also because I've seen plenty of posters and advertisements for the touring reggae event called Hempstead World Music Festival, yet I'm still not sure exactly what this large-scale party is all about. I do, however, have some guesses.
“Well, it starts at 4:20…for obvious reasons,” says Paul Stanford, the promoter of the festival, which also makes stops in Eugene on Saturday and in Portland on Monday, with a Sunday date up at the Deschutes County Fair and Expo Center. Stanford has been advocating for the repeal of cannabis prohibition since the mid 1980s when he placed another marijuana legalization measure, albeit unsuccessfully, on the ballot and is no stranger to events like this.

If the cats with lasers for eyes on the cover and throughout the liner notes of Helms Alee's new record, Weatherhead, aren't enough for you, then perhaps the gravelly riffs within are. The Tacoma band's follow-up to their excellent debut, Night Terror, shows how unboxable this Tacoma trio is.

It was a seemingly drab weeknight in March when Bend got a long awaited taste of New Orleans funk. The show was an appearance by Galactic, who were joined by a pair of fire-breathing horn players, and the Domino Room was packed with wall-to-wall with revelers going b-a-n-a-n-a-s for the all-instrumental band from the Crescent City.
That March show wasn't an isolated incident. Remember the massive crowd that got down to the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on a cold February night at the 2009 Winterfest? There was also a spirited Trombone Shorty show out in Sisters as part of the Sisters Folk Festival's winter concert series. Now, there's even an all-funk festival coming to Bend this summer at the Century Center, The Volcanic Funk Fest (July 30 and 31), headlined by yet another New Orleans act, Big Sam's Funky Nation, including several other Southern-inspired acts.

The mysterious storyline that emerged from Bon Iver's (Justin Vernon) For Emma, Forever Ago wouldn't have mattered had the album been a bust. On that album, Vernon's experimental falsetto was instantly haunting and yet strangely uplifting in most accounts. For Emma wrestled with failing friendships and the need to move away. The record felt less like someone trying to win over new fans and more like an artist conveying personal convictions. It did, however, drive a large flock of listeners into the now mythical cabin where these sounds materialized.
Bon Iver (the second from Vernon under the Bon Iver moniker) sounds exactly like his fans might expect or hope for. There's enough familiarity to keep wandering ears interested and Vernon's voice is still something of a brilliant head scratcher. He drives many songs with his dangerously high falsetto, but Vernon's focus on instrumentation really stretches this album into something grand. Bon Iver employs some saxophone, impeccable drum arrangements, slide guitar/strings and echoes that provide much-needed texture to all songs.

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In 1977, then-Portland-based jazz keyboardist Jeff Lorber and his Jeff Lorber Band recorded and released an album called Fusion. Working from musical foundations laid down by Weather Report, The Crusaders and Miles Davis, Lorber melded straight-ahead jazz with elements of rock, funk and R & B into an amalgamation known thereafter as “fusion.”
“When I was at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, I played a lot with guitarist John Scofield who was a fellow student and saw a lot of jazz greats play in and around the Boston area. Slowly, I went from being a jazz purist to being heavily influenced by what The Crusaders, in particular, were doing with melodic funk and R & B,” said Lorber.
Fusion, the album, caused more than a bit of controversy upon its release. “Confusion is a better name for that music,” groused more than one noted traditional jazz musician.

Woods makes music you stumble upon. They released a handful of limited run cassettes and seven-inch vinyl before catching ears with Songs of Shame in 2009.