Live It Up! All the shows that should be on your radar this summer. Operation Music Maker Festival Prep! Pick’s Picks Musicians Do Beer! …and finally… Your Fav Bands! The Source’s compendium of bands in Central Oregon.
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Old School Spin
Celebrate Record Store Day in Bend at Ranch Records and Recycle Music
Some may consider newspapers, paper-bound books and record stores a thing of the past. Fortunately for us, newspapers are still printed (whew!), books are still read and, thanks in part to the resurgence of vinyl records—the local record store lives on. In celebration of that nostalgia—and music—Record Store Day started in 2008 and continues to […]
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A Live Experience
World’s Finest recreates a live performance on the new album, “Chromatophores”
While the World’s Finest performance on 4/20 may be a celebration of the cannabis community in Central Oregon, you don’t have to be someone who partakes in the enjoyment of the plant in order to enjoy the varied, yet refined sound of the band. “We’ve been coming to Bend forever, it feels like. We’ve done […]
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New Depth
Hillstomp writes their most personal album yet, while still letting you rock the eff out
Whether you’ve lived in Bend for six months or 60 years, you may very well have gotten down to the slide guitar and bucket banging sounds of Hillstomp. The Portland-based, bluesy-rock duo has been performing in Bend for 15 years, and they say they love coming back year after year. Hillstomp’s string man, “Hurricane” Henry […]
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For the People
Missoula-based band The Lil Smokies bring high-energy bluegrass to Bend
When you hear someone say they love Lil Smokies, they’re not always talking about the delightful little sausages covered in BBQ sauce, sometimes wrapped in a crescent roll. In the music world, a love of The Lil Smokies means you’re down with bluegrass. The Lil Smokies, hailing primarily from Missoula, Mont., bring their fun energy […]
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The Animated Guitar
Kaki King blends audio and visual through projection mapping on a guitar, giving new life to the instrument
What leads someone to choose a specific instrument? For Kaki King, she doesn’t feel like she had a choice in the matter. The guitar chose her. In her current show, the guitar also has a chance to speak for itself. To get angry. To explode. To speak—all thanks to King and the character she plays […]
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Kindred Souls
Most bands start by playing live and then record an album. Not this new jam band supergroup
If you want to hear the jam band-style rock music this group of talented and experienced musicians brings to the table, for the most part, you’ll have to catch them live. When you go out in search of the music of Ghost Light, you’ll only find a couple videos featuring music recorded in the studio, […]
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Electric Art
Adam Mendel creates solid body electric ukuleles with his company Riverbend Instruments
Plenty of big names and longtime residents come to mind when thinking about musical instruments made in Central Oregon. Usually though, those people build guitars. With that, Adam Mendel saw a niche in the market waiting to be filled: the electric ukulele. Mendel, a huge fan of Leo Fender, the man behind Fender electric guitars, […]
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Scavenger Woodworks
Mountain modern furniture from reclaimed wood
Kentucky native Trae Gaddis started building furniture from found wood four years ago, after he and his wife Brittany found out they had a child on the way. They’d previously sold everything and were traveling around in a motorhome. Brittany started posting items up for sale and their business took off from there. Two years […]
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Experience is Key
Flogging Molly evolves with the music industry, bringing their high-energy Celtic rock to Bend
We tend to have a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants culture in the music scene in Bend—which means few shows sell out months in advance. You can usually head down to the door and pay to get in at will. A few shows, on the other hand, demand a pre-sale code and tickets purchased as soon as they go […]