Sound Stories & Interviews

Wait, are you calling the fashion police on yourself?Ever have one of those nights where the house band in some Irish pub is
so much fun to sing along with and dance to that the night could
stretch into sunrise and not only would it be all right, the idea
actually makes sense because several pitchers of beer and that one
group of friends - you know the one - told you it would be OK?

Gaelic
Storm is that band. They're infectious. They're the definition of fun.
They're meant to be seen rather than heard. They have the ability to
make a show played at a venue the size of Bend's Tower Theatre, where
they'll perform Monday, feel like it's actually taking place inside
some hole-in-the-wall bar where the only drink choices are Guinness,
Harp and Irish whiskey. They're a sing-along, dance 'till you drop,
make-it-up-as-they-go, Celtic band whose music sticks in your head for
days after hearing it.

The subdudes dress for the occasion.According to the subdudes guitarist and lead vocalist Tommy Malone, the
band has decided to take a seat for a while. And he means that
literally. Just like their intentional lower-casing of their band's
name, the five-piece roots rock band with plenty of soul is stepping
back from their electric instruments to sit down in a quieter, softer
stage approach.

"We're liking this configuration so much that we're
thinking of making it a permanent thing," Malone says of the band's
seated and acoustic take on their current tour, which can be seen on
its new concert DVD to be released just three days after the subdudes’
Sunday night appearance at the Riverhouse Convention Center as part of
local radio personality Elise Michael's birthday party.

Step into the barn at the Outback Music Festival.There's a good chance you already packed up all your summer music
festival gear…the folding chairs, the tent, the bug spray and even the
sequined cape and matching mask. You sealed all of these away for next
summer, when you'll reemerge from your winter cocoon come Memorial Day
Weekend just in time to head up to Sasquatch.
But head out to the
garage and start digging because the people who brought you the Coyote
Festival earlier this summer have made it their mission to extend
summer at least one more weekend for the Outback Music Festival. Held
in the same Summer Lake (near Paisley, Ore.) location of the Coyote
Fest, this event is slated to kick off on Friday and run until Sunday.
Organizers say the ticket fee covers your camping as well as access to
the hot springs located on site - not a bad deal at all, especially
when it means an extra week of summer (or at least summer mentality).

And Your mother said you’d never go anywhere without cleaning your room.After 12 minutes of conversation broken up by three dropped calls, I
realize that I've learned almost nothing remarkable about Omaha's
latest Saddle Creek Records phenom, Neva Dinova. Lead singer Jake
Bellows has jokingly (hopefully) claimed that the band puts ruffies
into the drinks of its naysayers and also asserted that he isn't all
that concerned with keeping up with new music before our communication
breakdown. Oh, and he's also stopped in mid sentence to chat to his
band mates about a moto-cross race track that the guys are driving past
somewhere outside of Tulsa.

The connection drops again and Bellows
calls back, this time on a different phone with much clearer reception
and with a strikingly different demeanor. He jumps immediately into
discussion about his folky, slightly alt-country sound that the band
has dubbed as "rural textures" and the fact that now, after 15 years in
existence, Neva Dinova has a well received record out on one of rock
music's more esteemed labels. Bellows suddenly isn't the asshole I'd
pegged him as.
"We never sit down and say 'let's make a song
that's influenced by this certain thing," Bellow says of his band's
tough-to-categorize take on indie folk rock.

Slightly Stoopid: With a name like that, they need balls like this. And also Dark sunglasses, apparently. Slightly Stoopid is back in Bend for round two this year and according
to Ryan "Rymo" Moran, the band is planning on another great show and
looking forward to partying down in Bend again. With the July release
of their latest album Slightly Not Stoned Enough to Eat Breakfast Yet
Stoopid, the Southern California group is prepared to release a slew of
new reggae-punk songs sure to get Stoopidheads moving.

It's been 12
years since the band's founders Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald
released their first album, Slightly Stoopid, with the help of
Sublime's Brad Nowell. At that time, Doughty and McDonald were just a
couple of 17-year-old skateboarders who liked to get stoned and play
some good music. Not much has changed, other than the fact Slightly
Stoopid now plays to crowds that can number in the thousands.

They don’t make cars or blues heroes like this anymore.Taj Mahal has been playing his brand of blues music for 40 years now
and you might be inclined to think he's slowed down a stride or two
during that time. But after a 20 minute chat, the 66-year-old legendary
musician seems as quick as ever and endlessly excited about his
upcoming tour.

Taj is stopping off in Bend as part of a tour (along
with his trio) supporting his new album, Maestro, which is slated to
hit the shelves on September 30, just two days after his show at the
Tower Theatre. The album is a 12-track, wide-reaching collaborative
project meant to celebrate Taj's 40 years laying down music. A
collection of collaborations from an aging blues man might, on the
surface, sound trite - the late-career collaboration-heavy disc is
almost a right of passage - but thankfully, Taj has come through with a
record not only impressive because of who plays on the cuts (Los Lobos,
Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Ziggy Marley, Phantom Blues Band) but because
they are genuinely good songs. And Taj seems to know they're good.

It’s big, it’s three-days, it’s local and hey, it’s free…Bend Roots ’08.I like to think of fall as "locals time" here in Bend. The tourist flow
lessens and remains slow until the snow starts falling and that means
it's time for the people who actually live here to get out on the town.
And our music scene follows the same model - the big-bill amphitheater
shows are done for the year and the other out-of-town tours will soon
slow as well. So, thus, it's time for the local artists to get their
time in the spotlight.

In only its third year, the Bend Roots Revival
has solidified itself as the quintessential who's-who gathering of
Bend's musical community - well, at least the acts that fall somewhere
near the definition of "roots music"…sorry punk and metal bands. This
weekend brings three days of music to the Westside for what Bend Roots
director (and captain of local jamsters The Mostest) calls a "block
party." And it pretty much is a block party - and it's also one of the
best parties, block, birthday or otherwise, of the entire year if
you're a local music fan.

An American Band in Jamaica, part I.Taking your all-white, six-piece reggae band to Jamaica is a bold move.
It certainly takes some balls. In some respects, this is akin to
growing up in Norway crafting since the age of seven what you believe
is an authentic and high-quality country western act, then taking your
show across the Atlantic to Nashville. So, it was with a bold stride
that drummer Chris O'Brian and the five other members of Rochester, New
York's Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad arrived in the birthplace of
reggae a little over a year ago.

"As a large reggae ensemble of
Caucasians from upstate New York, we tried not to let ourselves get
singled out for playing this music that has spread all over the world
in a short amount of time. We don't take it heavy, we don't take it
lightly, we just don't even take it when people come with their funny
look on their face," O'Brian says rather assertively while driving on
the Massachusetts Turn Pike on the way to what will be GPGDS' second
festival appearance of the day.