On Stage

Soundcheck ventured with a degree of trepidation to the Summit Saloon loft this past week to check out Tweak Bird, a quietly buzzed about duo that blew into town last Tuesday as part of the Volcom tour. (It has something to do with snowboarding, we gather.

The Gourds
Haymaker!
Yep Roc Records

Turning on a Gourds record is like walking into a best friend's house. You feel immediately comfortable, welcome and full of smiles.

Bon Iver
Blood Bank
Jagjaguwar
Where does Blood Bank fit with the frozen fog of For Emma, Forever Ago,
Bon Iver's much-acclaimed debut from last winter? It isn't an
afterthought, or an echo, or B-sides, though some of the songs were
recorded around the same time as For Emma in a little cabin in
Wisconsin during the good winter (French translation: Bon Hiver) after
which the band is named. It has similarities to
the experimental, beautiful mess that Justin Vernon captured in his
wooded solitude, but Blood Bank also feels like a series of postcards -
letting us know that the singer is traveling on, his heartbreak perhaps
slightly dulled.

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

Cardinology
Lost Highway Records
At 34 years old, Ryan Adams has achieved a good deal as a musician. From punk roots in a hot North Carolina music scene in the early '90's, he grew into an alt-country songwriter as a founding member of the renowned underground country band Whiskeytown.

Prediction: In 2009 all hip-hoppers will follow Mosley Wotta's head gear trend.It was a call and response of the strangest and most hilarious sorts
as Mosley Wotta, wearing some sort of lioness headdress bounced atop
the Old Stone Church stage yelling "I love myself! I love myself!"

And people, all of whom apparently love themselves, shouted back as Wotta
fired off a long line of chants as the members of El Dante jammed on
behind him. Soon, he began chanting "2-0-0-9, 2-0-0-9" and soon enough
it was in fact, Two oh, oh Nine and the band played on. And so was the
scene at the Source Weekly's Wig Out party at the Old Stone. Earlier in
the night, Wotta and collaborator Mud were on stage playing their tasty
brand of eclectically influenced hip-hop and dishing tracks from
Wotta's Scrap Mettle EP and beyond to a wigged audience that was all
but licking the floor for more tastes of Wotta.

Better late than neverIn 1970 Sixto Rodriguez, a Detroit native, released his album, Cold Fact. Sales in the U.

Micah Wolf
Beyond The Shores
It's easy to compare Maui singer/songwriter Micah Wolf to the likes of
Ben Harper and fellow Hawaiian Jack Johnson, but in terms of social
awareness, Wolf has branched out on a path uniquely his own with his
latest CD. This surf-rock acoustic artist also happens to call Bend his
second home (look for shout-outs to Reed Thomas Lawrence and the Rage
people in his liner notes).

What the hell is the "Domino Ron"?Those who've driven by the Midtown Music Hall in the past week may have noticed the boarded up window of the ballroom. Wondering what happened? Well, here's how we heard it: some dude - and we're guessing a rather drunken dude - tossed what is believed to be a pint glass through one of the six-foot-tall windows and also smashed out the iconic florescent Domino Room sign.

Woven Hand
Ten Stones
Sounds Familyre
Music dealing with spirituality, especially themes Christian in
ethos, struggle to set a high standard for artistic achievement. David
Eugene Edwards' current project, Woven Hand, is unlike most that
attempt to sing about the Divine. The message on Ten Stones (which was
released this past September) is generally the same as with any
recording by Edwards and company; Old Testament imagery coupled with
the ugliness of sin and beauty of redemption. However, Ten Stones is
much heavier sounding than previous albums. Ten Stones is hypnotic,
forceful, and inevitably haunting. The musicianship, as it is with any
Woven Hand album (also see 16 Horsepower), is incredible. The layering
is rich and each song dwells beside the next naturally while heavy
bass, raw guitars and pushing drums aggressively and fiercely weave an
explosively majestic album. Edwards' deep, untamed voice allows his
words to find their appropriate place. When he sings: "All these
tears/Gather together/Down your cheek/ Your neck and feathers" on "Iron
Feather," it's a simple reminder that few sound quite like this.

Empty Space Orchestra: Pre-snow shovel jam.Not trying to brag or boast (or eat French toast), but Sound Check's prediction for what was to go down last Saturday night was pretty much dead on. Yup, nailed it!

As forecasted on the Our Picks page last week, we said that folks would start up the night at the Silver Moon for the gutted version of Larry and His Flask, and so they did. Music fans rocked the moon as the increasingly wacky yet acoustic members of LAHF tossed their bodies around the room. The band then offered up praise for Hillstomp, the Portland gritty blues duo playing across the street at the Domino Room and instructed its fans to head over to that show as they wrapped up their own set.