Sound Stories & Interviews

On a rainy Wednesday afternoon, at least one member of 38 different local bands has gathered at Boondocks Bar and Grill. Yet upon entering the spacious Newport Avenue nightclub, hardly any of these musicians can be found – and that's because, quite predictably, they're all huddled around the bar. There's free beer to be had and some of these rockers, rappers and blues players seem more stoked about this (not to mention the equally free Chinese food) than they are about the fact that in a matter of about two months, one of them will win a package of goodies worth $30,000.
This is the scene at the kickoff party for Last Band Standing, a battle-of-the-bands-style competition produced by Combined Communications, the parent company of The Twins (98.3) and Clear (101.7), that will pit these acts against each other. The contest, spearheaded largely by Combined's Jennifer Meyer, features shows with four to five acts each night, beginning on Thursday and continue each Thursday through July 1.

The Besnard Lakes
The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night Jagjaguwar Records

The Besnard Lakes, the Montreal rock act with a constantly growing appeal, gave their record an apt title, because this album is essentially a 46-minute roar.
The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night, is a record dripping in shoegaze sweetness and songs that build anticipation. Montreal couple Jake Lasek and Olga Goreas, like to spread themselves all over the musical landscape and use their third album to do just that. The first track (really just an intro for the first song) “Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent Pt. 1: The Ocean,” is in itself, a sea of sound, featuring long shaky guitar notes layered with ambient synth noise that lead us into the inner sanctuary of the continued movement on “Pt 2: The Innocent” and continues for the rest of the album. “Albatross,” a love song just as flowing as the first track, is laced with a smile by The Besnard Lakes as they introduce some rhythmic drumbeats and guitar melodies.

It might surprise you to know that Geoff Weers, the vocalist and guitarist for the reggae-punk rock blending band The Expendables, recently got a job cleaning carts at a golf course. “Not because I don't make any money playing music, ” says Weers, “But because I want to play free golf,” When he's not on the road, Weers spends a few days a week scrubbing fairway grime from those ubiquitous white carts in order to tee off for free whenever he wants.

Harvestman
Trinity ★★★★ 1/2
If you look up a summary of the Italian horror film, H2Odio, on Wikipedia or IMDB, it's pretty clear that something is being lost in translation from Italian to English. But then listen to Harvestman's Trinity – the album that serves as the soundtrack for H2Odio. Though it doesn't specifically tell you what happens in the film (Trinity is entirely instrumental), you can gather a lot about the movie from the music.

Jamin Marshall is at home last Friday afternoon and is trying to get some rest. Just two days earlier, he and the rest of his band, Larry and His Flask, drove 30 straight hours from Rochester, Minn. to arrive in their hometown of Redmond.
That's more than 1,800 miles, but Marshall isn't trying to impress anyone with that number. After all, the acoustic-meets-punk band has put some 16,000 miles on its touring van in the past seven months, zigging and zagging across the country playing shows – sometimes in basements, sometimes in bars and, when needed, on street corners.
But this time around, Larry and his Flask are returning to their hometown after what has inarguably been the biggest trip in the band's history, playing big rock clubs and theaters in support of famed Celtic punk act Dropkick Murphys on their always popular St. Patrick's Day tour.

Mark Ransom is turning 40 this weekend and he's just fine with that because he's having a big damn party to celebrate.
While he once dreamed of skiing in Chamonix, France, to celebrate his summitting of the proverbial hill, Ransom says Saturday night's throw down at McMenamins Old St. Francis School, which features his own band, The Mostest, and an impressive who's-who list of other local musicians joining in for an acoustic song circle earlier in the night, will suit him just fine. And this makes sense because this guy is the face of local music in Bend, even if he might not exactly agree with that assertion.

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Johnny Clay is eating lunch and he feels like it's about to start raining. He's on a break from his job fixing printers for Hewlett Packard in Vancouver, the gig that keeps him occupied when he's not serving as lead singer and songwriter for Portland's indie folk-pop outfit, The Dimes.
Clay, a Texas native, moved to Portland from Austin to follow a girl, the age-old story. Don't worry, he assures me, he married her and they are now expecting their first child, a little girl. In December, The Dimes released their second album, The King Can Drink the Harbour Dry, which if you didn't catch from the title, alludes to the Boston Tea Party. The concept album centers on the city of Boston and it's immense role in American history. You can toss those American history textbooks aside, as this LP is an audio guide through one of the most instrumental cities in America's development.