Sound Stories & Interviews

Punking it old school.If you think punk rock got political
during the G. W. Bush administration, you're way off. For example, let
us introduce you to MDC (whose initials stand for the superbly
offensive - to some - Millions of Dead Cops), a band that was rocking
against Reagan for crying out loud.

That's right, back in 1982,
MDC was already railing against Reagan and playing with bands like the
Dead Kennedys and other forefathers of punk rock. From there, MDC
cultivated a hardcore punk following that helped the band survive until
1995, when they went on hiatus until 2000. But now, the band, calling
Portland home, are back on the road and with front man David Dictor,
now 52 years young, still holding the mic and flanked with other
original members.

Poor Man’s Whiskey: Just another five bricks in the wall…It won't be outside. And it won't be summer. You won't be able to bring
your own lawn chair and you also won't be able to walk back to your
tent when it's over. There won't be anyone selling veggie burritos and
you won't be advised to wear sunscreen or reasonable footwear.

No,
Saturday night's Spring Fling Tour stop at the Old Stone Church won't
be the 4 Peaks Music Festival, but as far as music goes, it will get us
as close to the jammy outdoor music festival - the exact future of
which is uncertain - as we're likely to get in late March. And this is
due, of course, to the show's bill, which includes Poor Man's Whiskey
and Blue Turtle Seduction, two bands that have played both installments
of the festival.

Dyna by candlelight.Three-fourths of Goodbye Dyna have gathered at the Source offices on a
Friday afternoon, all of them with the ruddy faces that can only mean
one thing on a sunny March day in Bend: they just got off the mountain.
The emerging local eclectic rockers admit that they've just finished up
their first ever "band day" at Mt. Bachelor - and this is just one of
several firsts Goodbye Dyna has chalked up as of late.

If you size up Goodbye Dyna against other local acts, it would seem
that this quartet has done everything backwards. Rather than earning a
following by slaving away in the bars for a couple years before
amassing enough material and resources to lay down some tracks in the
studio, Goodbye Dyna took a different route: they pretty much had an
album before ever playing a show. Well to say "they" is stretching it
to a degree, seeing as how front man Andrew Mowbray Jacobs played
almost all the instruments and produced the band's debut, XXVII, on his
own.

Live from Bonnaroo 2008 DVD
As if the announcement of the Bonnaroo 2009 lineup a couple weeks ago didn't get us inordinately (and prematurely) amped for the summer music festival season, we had to go ahead and get our hands on the 2008 Bonnaroo Live DVD and make that ache in our gut for summer a bit worse.
With performances by last year's headliners like Pearl Jam, Metallica and Jack Johnson, the disc also pays attention to the smaller stages for shows by de facto festival house band My Morning Jacket, as well as Broken Social Scene, The Raconteurs, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and plenty more.

Got suits, will travel.Chris Sterr and his band, Bump, are based out of Detroit. He says the
city isn't as bad as the death-and-despair rap it often gets, but the
former automotive capital of the world has definitely provided the
prog-rockers with a few stories.
This is just one of those:
"We
used to play these gigs downtown at this old venue called Fifth
Avenue," Sterr recalls. "It was a house gig every Tuesday and every
night we'd be loading out and these homeless guys would flock around us
and they'd be grabbing our gear to help us so we'd pay 'em. A couple of
these guys would have silver or gold on their lips and face because
they'd been huffing paint. It was crazy."
Maybe it's these sort
of instances that keeps the band on the road for several months of
hard-driving touring each year, like the band's current excursion that
takes them to the Silver Moon on Tuesday and then to Southern
California before finally ending in Florida in early April. Sterr says
that isn't so and that the Bump has a warm place in its heart for the
Motor City.

Person People…the early years: 2005 at the Grove.Person People celebrate the release of their much-awaited CD,
heARTbeats, on Saturday night at the Domino Room, and after letting
that disc soak our ears since we got an early, pre-mastered version of
the record some four months ago, we've been thinking about the history
of this highly esteemed local hip-hop act. That's why we dug deep into
the Source archives to find the review of the first-ever Person People
show. Read below for some excerpts from a pre-live band Person People
by former staffer Jeff Trainor published on September 1, 2005:

The
new Bend hip-hop crew, consisting of producer/DJ Adam Bomb, mixmaster
DJ Barisone, Sorski, and four or five MCs - including KP, Sandman, and
Fish-have been hard at work for a while now, right under our little
newsprint-blackened noses.

Thinking of his next album…alreadyPam Fortier didn't have to search too extensively to find musical
talent for the benefit she was putting together for her non-profit
organization that provides advocates for abused and neglected children.
In fact, she didn't have to look past her own family tree to book her
son, Tyler Fortier, a Eugene-based singer songwriter who at 23 has
already solidified a reputation as a tenacious recording studio hound.
"He'd
actually mentioned that [CASA] should do a music event and that's kind
of what planted the seed in my mind," Pam says. She adds that it wasn't
hard to convince Tyler to fill a spot on a bill that also includes
local musicians Doug Michaels (who helped arrange the show) and Bo
Reynolds. The show is a benefit for CASA (Court Appointed Special
Advocate) of Central Oregon, the non-profit organization of which Pam
is the executive director.