Sound Stories & Interviews

There is typically something artistic going down at Mirror Pond Plaza (often referred to as "The Circle" among locals), the picturesque brick area bordering Drake Park. Most times there is a guitar strumming busker or perhaps some fire dancing or juggling, or maybe something a bit more structured - I once saw a group of 15 or so pre-teens perform a musical number from Aladdin in full costumes.
On Saturday, there won't be any youth productions of Disney musicals - I don't think - but there will be a remarkably diverse showcase of Bend's local music. Often thought of as the unofficial center of downtown Bend, the Plaza makes for the most fitting location for the first-ever Downtown Sound; a free all-day gathering of 14 local acts ranging from indie rock to hip-hop.
Seeing as how the show sprang in part from the brain of Jay Tablet (JT) an MC in Bend's own Cloaked Characters (who are slated for an evening performance before Mosley Wotta closes out the show), the music does lean toward the DJ and hip-hop faction as the day goes on. That said, the diversity of acts is nonetheless impressive and is another sign of what seems to be a recent synergy taking place between Bend's different musical camps. We're probably not going to see a bluegrass/punk/hip-hop collaboration at Downtown Sound, but the range of artists on the bill suggests that we might not be too far from that sort of hootenanny taking shape.

Being all sly about it. There is probably a tribute band for every major American or European rock band you can think of and most of them have names that unmistakably link them to the band they idolize and emulate. Zeppelin tributes have names like Led Zepagain, Physical Graffiti, Whole Lotta Zep and Beatles emulators go by monikers like the Backbeats and Hello Goodbye. There's a Portland band called Appetite for Deception - and yes, they play the music and wear the leather of Guns N' Roses.
 
On Sunday, Joey Porter brings his nine-piece Sly and the Family Stone tribute to the Les Schwab Amphitheater for the Summer Sundays kickoff, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to discuss the tribute band phenomena.
Some, and possibly most, tribute bands are the result of an excessively enthusiastic love of a particular band gone overboard. When I was 13 years old, I found myself having unintentionally become the guitarist of a Nirvana tribute band. The intention was never to become a tribute of any kind, but we played Nirvana songs exclusively while wearing our Nirvana T-shirts and listening to Nirvana on cassette tapes during breaks in our rehearsals. We wore our guitars right around crotch level, just like Kurt Cobain and Krist Noveselic, and donned thermal undershirts while trying to let our hair grow long. I grew out of that Nirvana phase, but I can see how some might stick with it, taking the delusion to the next level by making a career of not being a rock star, but pretending to be a rock star.

probably didn’t hang out with the lacrosse team. If anyone went to the trouble of reading all the Lord of the Rings books, and just not watching the movies, then you may remember the mysterious and endearing character of Tom Bombadil, who was slighted in the film versions.
If you're into bands that play everything from simple guitar-driven lyrical lullabies to raucous marching band ballads, then the North Carolina-based four-piece band, who goes by the same name as this mythical creature, just might be for you.
The band plays at McMenamins Old St. Francis School on June 4 as part of the Great Northwest Music Tour and will also visit six other McMenamins locations in Oregon and Washington as part of the tour.
The two Bombadils do share the same name by chance, the folk-rock band and Duke University graduates-consisting of Daniel Michalak, Bryan Rahija, Stuart Robinson and James Phillips-chose to take the surname of Tom for the band because of the similarities between the two.

This band is not playing at your church this sunday. Honest. You can try to avoid the Grateful Dead. You can attempt to bury your tie-dyes and ticket stubs in the closet and scrape those dancing bears off the back of your Volkswagen. But you can never quite get away from the influence of the Dead, even 40 plus years since the band's inception and almost 15 since its end. There's a slew of factors contributing to the lasting power of the band's influence, but none as impacting as the fact that most of the band is not only still alive, but still playing music - and not just music, Grateful Dead music.
This is why a band like Donna Jean and the Tricksters, although new to the scene, will find success. The band also put out a remarkably fresh-sounding self-titled record - that helps.
As the more adept Dead-o-philes, probably already deduced by now. This band is made up primarily of the Dead's longtime vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux and the Zen Tricksters - a New York-based jam band that's been around since before anyone referred to such acts as "jam bands."

What? We can’t find thick-rimmed glasses for all four of these guys?Chris Walla isn't merely a guitarist and songwriter in one of the most successful "indie" rock bands of all time, his solo career and record producing acclaim (Tegan and Sara, the Decemberists) have also transformed him into a major player in the Northwest music scene. The soft-spoken charmer chatted with us about Death Cab's new record, entitled Narrow Stairs, Britney Spears, and how he hopes his band breaks up before they start sucking.
 
How does it feel to have a new album out?
I just forgot about it weeks ago. I mean we had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant and all that on the release day, but the record is made, and it's out, and I'm happy it's out, but it's not like I've been holding my breath for the last three months.

Guess which one of these guys isn’t a member of the Shoe Club for Men.It's cutting late into a Friday afternoon in early May and Michael Franti is preparing to skip halfway around the world to Europe in only a matter of hours. The purpose: promote the forthcoming Michael Franti & Spearhead record, All Rebel Rockers, set to drop in September and, well, just be Michael Franti, an ambassador of peace and funky music.
 
Franti is a guy who raps about ending the war, sings about the search for social justice and takes jabs at the Bush administration whenever possible, but he's not as angry as his music might suggest. Anyone who's got down at a Spearhead show knows this. And Franti says All Rebel Rockers is hardly a lament of current times or a bitch session about what's wrong in the world.
"Well, it's our most danceable record that we've ever made. In terms of the themes of the songs, it's about trying to stay positive in a time when you turn on the news and it's like the world has gone…(makes explosion sound) … with all this talk of elections, natural disasters, and the economy going to hell," Franti says.