Packing the Schwab: Beck and Wilco bring in the crowds

Posted inMusic

Packing the Schwab: Beck and Wilco bring in the crowds

Mike Bookey

Amidst much talk of pre-Wilco parties, Sound Check was determined not to miss the buzz heavy opener Fleet Foxes, having had a chance to listen through the Seattle band's solid debut album. Alas, we found ourselves marooned at a Westside all-you-can-eat fajita buffet and couldn't manage to extract ourselves before the culmination of Fleet's truncated set. Thankfully, Tweedy and Co. were good enough to bring the Fleet Foxes back on stage before the end of the night for all us stragglers that missed their set. But more on that later.

Headliners Wilco seemed to have found their niche in Bend where their blend of mashup alt-country-pop-rock and discord melodies resonate with our musical and cultural schizophrenia (The epic Wilco-Beck weekend is to be followed this week by former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald and an unnecessarily reunited Stone Temple Pilots). But we digress.

Back to Saturday night… frontman Jeff Tweedy took the stage at 7:30 sharp dressed in black, but in a seemingly light mood. Exchanging barbs with audience members, he carried on a casual monologue through the entire show, which included topics like the connection between Radiohead and Wilco (there is none), the emerging Lawncore movement, the impact of rock and roll (specifically Wilco) on women's fertility and an impromptu PSA for Bend's Breedlove guitars (the band's acoustic axe of choice). Between the banter, Wilco managed to put on an epic - by Les Schwab Amphitheater standards - show that spanned the band's entire decade-plus catalog of music with as much emphasis on earlier work as their most recent efforts, including the stellar Sky Blue Sky. Highlights included a shimmering "Impossible Germany" and an awesomely dark "Spiders/Kidsmoke" to round out the band's roughly hour and fifteen minute set. Thankfully, the lights stayed down and the house music was nowhere to be heard as the band took a quick breather and marched through two encores.

Posted inMusic

Picking Up the Scraps: Mosley Wotta is here to check your ego

Mike Bookey

Mud on the Left, Wotta on the right. "It's not the bottom of the barrel or anything, but it's what I have around me that I love. It's the idea of using what's around you to improve what's around you," says Mosley Wotta, a.k.a. Jason Graham, of his new EP Scrap Mettle.

The five-track record has been in the works for a few months now, and is for the most part quintessential Graham - crisply voiced hip-hop lyrics that lean closer toward poetry than rap music laid atop constantly innovative instrumentals. While locals will likely recognize Graham's loud, low and direct voice within the opening seconds of the album's opener, "Boom For Real," the EP is hardly same-old-same-old fodder from one of Bend's most visible artists.

Just as he wears masks during some of his solo performances or is apt to changing his stage name (some might know him not as Wotta or Graham, but rather "The Rook"), Graham doesn't seem to mind reinventing himself, perhaps not drastically, but enough to keep things interesting in a musical landscape where change is often necessary.

"It's like stories I've heard of Japanese calligraphers who keep changing their names. They'll build up an entire career and then change their name," Graham says. "You gotta keep allowing yourself to be you - I mean I'm still going to be a six foot tall man of color in Bend, I'm not going to be able to get away from that, unless I become so successful I can go the Michael Jackson route or something like that, which I probably wouldn't."

Posted inMusic

If It Makes You Happy: Sheryl Crow and Lucinda Williams bring some big-stage estrogen to Bend

Intern

Even cowgirls get the blues. Since the official beginning of the summer concert series at Les Schwab Amphitheater in May, nine male-lead bands have taken the stage in straight succession. It's a similar story with the Athletic Club of Bend, which has featured two male acts, and Midtown Music Hall has featured a slew of testosterone-fronted acts from E-40 to the Gourds, Tiger Army and The Melvins. This weekend, two female music power acts will take the stage in Bend, within days of each other, separated by less than a mile.

Sheryl Crow plays at Les Schwab on August 28 (with emerging folk pop star Brandi Carlile) while Lucinda Williams lights up the stage four days later at the Athletic Club. Bend's recent Lilith Fair-esque turn has brought two of this generation's most influential women in music to Central Oregon and we say bring on the estrogen!

First up, Sheryl Crow, whose 10th album release, February's Detours, peaked at number two on the Billboard charts, has nine Grammy awards, a slew of number one hits … and oh yeah, she's also beat stage-one breast cancer. Hardcore? Yes, quite so. Detours, Crow's first release since her battle with cancer, adoption of a child and breakup of her very public relationship with cyclist Lance Armstrong, reflects on everything from the war in Iraq to Hurricane Katrina along with plenty of songs about endings, beginnings and what happens in between.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for the week of 8/28-9/4

Mike Bookey

Sheryl Crow

thursday 28

This summer has been all about masculine-dominated shows, but thankfully, one Sheryl Crow is coming to the big Schwab stage to do a thing or two about that. Turn the page and read more. 5pm. $85/reserved, $45/general. Les Schwab Amphitheater, 344 Shevlin Hixon Dr.

Empty Space Orchestra

friday 29

A lot of Bend's music community had this date circled on the calendar as the night that our very own hip-hop super group, Person People, was going to play in the Parrilla back yard. OK, so plans changed and PP will be taking the stage next week (9/5) but the Empty Space Orchestra is filling in. Despite some lineup changes, expect ESO to bring funk fusion and all sorts of whirling soundscapes to the outdoor venue to close out the Show Us Your Spokes concert series. Does this mean summer is over? Hmmm…kind of. 7pm. $4, $5 if you show up by car. Parrilla Grill. 635 NW 14th St.

Posted inNews

Go With the Flow: River Conservancy has made quiet progress on flow restoration

Eric Flowers

Testing the waters below bend.Kyle Gorman remembers a time, not so long ago, when many folks in Central Oregon viewed concepts like water conservation with suspicion, if not outright contempt. Water flushed down the river was water wasted.

Gorman who now serves as the regional manager for the Oregon Water Resources Department was the Deschutes Basin watermaster back in the early 1990s. His job was to make sure that water right holders each got their allotment of water from the regional irrigation districts - a sort of water sheriff for farmers and ranchers.

When asked how the landscape of water and conservation has changed over the past decade and half, Gorman allows that he has a standard anecdote. Back then, said Gorman, if anybody spotted water in Squaw Creek (now Whychus Creek) in Sisters during irrigation season, a phone call was sure to follow letting Gorman know that he wasn't doing his job: water was going to waste, flushed away.

These days said Gorman, if anybody spotted a dry creek bed in Whychus, heads would be rolling as people lined up to find out why the RIVER wasn't getting its water.

"That's 180 degrees difference from when I started working here until now," Gorman said.

Posted inOpinion

A Time Limit on Democracy

Intern

A local group called Infrastructure First is pushing an intriguing idea: Instead of letting growth happen helter-skelter and worrying later about paying for the sewers, water mains, streets and other stuff that growth requires, do the infrastructure first - or at least within two years of when the new development happens.

Infrastructure First has been trying for a couple of years to get enough signatures to put its idea on the local ballot in the form of an initiative. It's been an uphill slog: The group has no big-bucks supporters to buy TV ads or pay signature gatherers. It's a true grassroots campaign.

Infrastructure First turned in 5,100 signatures to try to put its measure on the November ballot. That was about 1,000 names short. Now it's hoping to collect enough to qualify the initiative for the ballot next spring.

That irks Bend City Councilor Mark Capell, who wants the city to impose some sort of limit on the amount of time petitioners have to gather signatures. Last week, a majority of Capell's fellow councilors went along with him and asked city staff to draw up an ordinance.

Posted inOpinion

Conventional Wisdom: Olympic high and lowlight and the Dems in Denver

Intern

You Think you’re so bad. Upfront spent some time last week lamenting the false pageantry around the Beijing Games including the decision to have a child lip sync a song during the opening ceremonies. But apparently China wasn't the first to decide that it needed to fake it to make it on the world stage. Australian papers reported this week that the 2000 opening ceremonies in Sidney weren't exactly the real McCoy. The then host country used a canned recording as the backdrop for its opening ceremony while the Sidney Symphony essentially air-guitared along with the pre-recorded soundtrack. Australian officials also conceded that the music wasn't even recorded by the Sidney Symphony, most of it was laid down by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

If we didn't know better, Upfront would think the Olympics were just one big made for TV spectacle, rather than the purest form of international athletic competition that they surely are.

Still there were some great moments in the recently concluded games: Michael Phelps’ unprecedented run to eight gold medals, the men's basketball team finding redemption, Gold for women's beach volleyball. Ah, bikini ball…

There were also some great flameouts: the United States track team in general, U.S. gymnasts falling off the balance beam. But our favorite meltdown had to be the Cuban tae kwon do fighter who intentionally kicked a Swedish referee in the face after being disqualified from the bronze medal match. That was some serious Lone Wolf McQuade shit. DNC

Posted inOpinion

Me and Obama

Intern

Why it's time for Oregon to get behind Obama. I support Barack Obama because both he and I are Patriotic Americans who believe OUR flag can once again stand for what it has long represented … a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Barack Obama and I also agree that "the people" referred to in the Declaration of Independence consists of each and every individual citizen of the United States, whether born on our soil or naturalized citizens. We are, with all due respect to our Native American Indian citizens, a nation of immigrants.

John McCain and his band of Republican "carpetbaggers" have spent the past twenty plus years trying to morph our glorious flag into the equivalent of the Corporate Logo for their use in the Global Economy … where the jobs go overseas and the profits go to insiders and corporate investors, and where "we the people" pick up the tab when the feces hits the fan.

John McCain and his band of Republican "carpetbaggers" embrace a simple minded, cynical notion of Corporate Personhood that gives enormous political power and influence over our governmental and political affairs to foreign nationals so long as they wield that influence ($$$$$$$$$$) through their investments in and control over any domestically incorporated entity.

Posted inOpinion

Insult to Injury

Intern

Letter of the Week 
This week's LOW goes to Greer Thomas, if for no other reason than his dogged persistence. Like Fox Mulder, Thomas and the rest of the Truthers keep searching with the knowledge that "The Truth Is Out There.

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