On a beautiful Sunday evening, light coming in sideways across the asphalt, nearing the Spanish border as we drove from Provence to the Costa Brava, I happened across Radio 3 from Spain. The Sonideros program was just starting, moving from early 70’s Kenyan funk band, Matata, to Maceo Parker, then the Tom Tom Club, and later to Samba Touré and Thomas Mapfumo. I felt like I’d found Freeform’s Spanish cousin there on the highway.
For the following week, driving between the gorgeous coves and beaches of the Costa Brava and down into Barcelona, I was able to explore more of the station’s diverse programming. Like Freeform, it’s commercial-free and offers different shows covering a variety of genres. Shows can be downloaded and streamed from the website.
Sonideros is directed by Rodolfo Povoda, but features four other DJs, sharing music along various themes. Other great shows include:
–Música con Subtítulos from Elena Gómez y Ricardo Aguilera — which featured an excellent show on borders (La Frontera), seemingly inspired in part as a response to the disturbing separation of immigrant families along the US southern border in recent weeks
–Duendeando from Teo Sánchez, which explores flamenco
Whether or not you understand Spanish, the station has great appeal. Sharing an eclectic, catholic approach, like Freeform, Radio 3 offers endless opportunities to discover new music.
Pickathon celebrated its 20th anniversary last weekend as I was taking in my first Pickathon experience. The festival has a knack for bringing an eclectic mix of international talent as well as featuring local musicians. Here’s a list of some of my favorite sets from the festival. Needless to say, this will not be my last year attending.
Per the aggressively friendly suggestion of an attendee, I caught Kikagaku Moyo’s Friday evening set at the Starlight Stage. The five piece band appeared as if they just arrived on VW camper straight from the 1970’s, decked out in retro clothing and flowing long hair. It served as a good primer for the psychedelic-rock voyage they launched us on. Thick guitar riffs and hypnotic vocals left the audience begging for more, so much so that their second set at the Galaxy Barn had the stage at capacity with long queues attempting to get in.
By the time Bee Bee Sea’s 1:20am set started on Friday at the Galaxy Barn I was wiped, fighting back the urge to get some shut eye. That all changed once Bee Bee Sea kicked into gear. The Italian band’s high energy, fuzzed-out garage concoction served me better than any cup of coffee has. The barn became a chaotic moshfest with people bouncing off the walls and wrecking havoc. I witnessed one of the video crew members get decked by a rogue mosher. There is no question that Bee Bee Sea can throw a rager.
Biggest surprise from the festival was Daniel Norgren who I only caught on a whim. The swedish folk-rock artist left me awe with his ability to craft landscapes with his music. Songs like “Moonshine Got Me” started off with ambience, before building to a vocal punch to the soul delivered by Daniel. This was Daniel Norgren’s second time playing a Pickathon and the large crowd at the Woods Stage demonstrated that they were overjoyed to have him back.
The power pop canadian collective had a stellar set to close out Saturday evening. Touring on their highly acclaimed album “Hug of Thunder’ from 2017, Broken Social Scene brought a mix of new jams and old favorites. Kevin Drew could not get over playing in the woods and remarked about the incredible trees at Woods Stage numerous times. The set was capped off with the classic “Anthems for Seventeen Year-Old Girls” with a harmonizing duet between Leslie Fest and Tamara Lindeman of The Weather Station.
Coming off a five year hiatus Phosphorescent demonstrated a little rust getting back into the groove. Matthew Houck spent a few awkward moments checking his phone for the evening’s set. That being said, once the music kicked in all was forgiven. “Song of Zula” was beautifully delivered and “New Birth in New England” had an uplifting beat that had me shaking my rump. Hopefully they recorded audio from the single, because the live rendition was vastly superior to the over polished studio recording.
As an immigrant to the United States who is Chinese and born in Australia, I appreciate the linguistic synthesization of people who also have the experience of transnationalism. When people talk to me they often question my accent/s because I am not white and my ethnicity does not fit the typical identity of an “Australian.” My accent/s ebb and flow between Australian and American, and both cultures are rooted in colonialism. The U.S encompasses a fondue of populations that gives open minded people access to sample or learn about another’s culture or ethnicity. International cultural traditions generate many national holidays in the U.S and gives the American public an excuse to drink excessively, and assault and/or accept each other by appropriating another’s cultural traditions. English is often a second language for immigrants, and many international singers choose to assimilate and sing in the established cultural language. International singers often cover popular English songs to appeal to the popular music audience who have the privilege to buy their music. Celebrating music as a second language and listening to the cultural inflections of singers can supply listeners with clues about the artists’ transnational route/s through enunciation. Here are 5 cover gems from Asian singers singing in English and their first language.
Fung Po-Po “Suicide is Painless”(1970). A great cover of the Mike Altman song. Fung was a child prodigy star from Hong Kong who played a role in more than 120 features before she was 14 years old. She was referred to as the “Shirley Temple of the East.” Listeners can hear Fung’s transnationalism within her English inflection and Cantonese/Mandarin first language synthesized with her British accent because Hong Kong was under British rule at that time.
Nam Hong“She’s a Lady”(1972). Mostly sung in Nam’s first language of Mandarin with a few words in English in the chorus, stating “she’s a lady” to stamp an audible signature onto this popular song. The tune was covered often in the Asian market, including a full-English version by Penny Lim.
Penny Lim “Dancing On a Saturday Night”made popular by Barry Blue in 1974. Lim sang in English and Chinese. She often sang with the Silverstones as her back up band, complimenting her vocals and mirroring a Joe Meek Telstar sound. This backing track is by another well-known southeast Asian recording act, The Stylers.
Rita Chao “Only Friends”made popular by Francoise Hardy and written by Sonny Miller in 1966. Chao sings the majority of the song in Mandarin except the signature line of the chorus. She sang many songs in English and Chinese to enable inclusiveness of appealing to both Eastern and Western audiences. The 4-song 7″ EP format was very popular in Asia, and these often included a mix of traditional local standards intermingled with western melodies, like “Wooly Bully”, “As Tears Go By”, and “My Bonnie”.
Dara Puspita “To Love Somebody”a song made popular by The Bee Gees. Dara Puspita (or Flower Girls) was an all female Indonesian girl group in the 1960s who wrote and performed all their own songs, paving the way for many Indonesian girl bands. They were harassed by the Indonesian government due to their Western pop sounds and were constantly interrogated by their government because of their feminist ethics (Bitch Media 2018).
Shamefully, I must admit I have never seen The Secret Light live before. There are so many shows and bands in this city of ours, it’s almost impossible to keep up with them. I have heard their music and checked out some of their live footage on Youtube. That’s something, right? But on a totally positive note, The Secret Light will finally shine down on me from the stage of Portland’s Paris Theater at 2018’s PIGFEST.
The Secret Light is a tasty blend of some darker melodic genres. Viktor Nova provides sultry vocals backed by danceable rhythms and synth magic. Michelle Pecchia adds support to the infuses beats with her bass, and Kiisu D’Salyss adds more melody with his guitar. The outcome? Fantastic music.
Now let’s get to the interview!
Q: What came first, the band name or the band? Can you guys share with us, how this band came about?
The band. We’ve all played together in different bands, Viktor and kiisu in Pink Noise, Viktor and Michelle in theXplodingboys, and Michelle and kiisu in The Oblik. We all actually played together in a merging of Pink Noise and theXplodingboys while performing a cover once. Pink Noise and The Oblik broke up around the same time, and the 3 of us began jamming together. That’s how the band was formed.
The name “The Secret Light” had all the elements we required; mystery, ambiguous occult themes, general nerdiness…also the .com domain was available and we found no other existing bands using the name.
Q: Why this genre? What is that draws you towards playing in the darker genres? And would you want to play anything different at all?
There is no genre we are trying to emulate. We make the music we want to hear and the music we create happens organically. It’s a culmination of all the previous bands we’ve enjoyed and been influenced by. We’d argue that we’re just as much pop as we are dark. That aside, darker genres have more depth of subject matter and style that appeals to us.
As far as other aspirations, kiisu woud like to be involved in something more industrial with elements of black metal but that will have to wait until he finds the time machine mentioned in a question towards the end of this interview. Viktor is finding his calling as a synthwave DJ and is exploring composing soundtracks. Michelle would like to move to Sweden and become the new bassist for Agent Side Grinder. *LOL*
Q: What is more important to you as a band, the message or the music? Why do you feel that way?
I’m not convinced those are separate items. The message and music are so intertwined they are essentially the same thing. We are who we are becoming and we are trying to become better in everything we do. The world is dark and brutal and our message is of alternate universes and timelines where life can peacefully exist and where broken robots can find love and happiness…
Q: What is the biggest goal for The Secret Light? What do you do to achieve that goal?
Ultimately we’re into being able to quit our day jobs and do music full time but that’s the generic dream of most bands isn’t it? As far as pragmatic realistic goals we’d like to get on a label where we can have a mutually beneficial relationship that will expose us to a larger audience. We would like to continue making music that we, and hopefully many others enjoy. We do this because we love creating and performing.
Q: I like to throw in some fun fantasy questions, so here is one. You go to the Oregon coast and find a hidden time machine! You can go anywhere you want the past or the future. Where would you go and why? What would you do once you are there?
Ultimately we would have to travel to the future as we still have hope that humanity, or perhaps highly evolved cephalopods will have gotten their act together enough for a peaceful space traveling society. We’re all science fiction fans and hope to one day see a future of space travel beyond the solar system. Before that however, we’d have to travel to the past to hide our time machine/DeLorean better, and to play a series of long playing pranks involving eyes and triangles.
Q: One last question. What can we expect from The Secret Light in the near future? Any projects in sight? Tours? Changing the world? 😉
We have a single coming out in October that we are currently wrapping up. We are also writing and polishing the last couple songs for the second album, which we will be recording immediately after finishing the single. When the single is released, we’re looking into booking a two week Western U.S. tour, and then a larger one following that. We’re hoping to get a European tour together within a year. After that we will continue on to explore the multiverse and change many worlds.
Thank you so much for taking your time and doing this interview with me! I cannot wait to see you guys at the PIGFEST!
DJ Sonic Szilvi, a European native, joined the Portland music scene a few years ago, currently playing bass for two active bands and one on hiatus. She recently joined the Freeform Portland family as a DJ. Sonic Szilvi hosts the weekly showDark Noise Radio
Radio Hot Tub features over 250 local bands out of Portland, Oregon. I’ve built this show out of a love for our thriving local music scene, mostly bands I’ve discovered during live performances. On Friday, July 13th I put together a bill featuring three of my favorites. It all happened at The Fixin To in St John’s.
Opening the show was a fresh new band out of Portland called Streetcar Conductors. The band is the brainchild of drummer/singer Jonathon Moore. Many of you may know him as the keyboardist for Portland legend King Black Acid, but in this band, Jonathan has taken over the songwriting role.
At first listeners might find a certain unease, an unfamiliar feeling. That feeling, my friend, is joy. In a world filled with chaos and despair, Jonathan has written a batch of songs that bring up a sense of wonder, happiness and positivity. He is joined on stage by singer/keyboardist Carmen Charters, who has a blissful smile on her face throughout the entire performance. Bassist Matthew Dinaro (of The Toads) along with guitarists Jimmy Ling and Michael Hollifield all hold their own, delivering catchy hooks and solid technical skills.
They open the show with their tune “You Are The Brightest Star,” a simple tune reminiscent of sixties pop bands. They always win over the crowd with “Pictures of Ourselves”, a song dedicated to our obsession with selfies, and they wrap up the set with their quirky song “The Absurdity of Life,” which includes a break in which the band throws confetti at the audience. The band is a breath of fresh air in our music scene. They don’t imitate anybody else, and yet their style is complimentary to a variety of different bands. Keep your ears open for this band, they’ll be back on stage with King Black Acid at the Holocene on Thursday, August 16th!
They open the show with their tune “You Are The Brightest Star,” a simple tune reminiscent of sixties pop bands. They always win over the crowd with “Pictures of Ourselves”, a song dedicated to our obsession with selfies, and they wrap up the set with their quirky song “The Absurdity of Life,” which includes a break in which the band throws confetti at the audience. The band is a breath of fresh air in our music scene. They don’t imitate anybody else, and yet their style is complimentary to a variety of different bands. Keep your ears open for this band, they’ll be back on stage with King Black Acid at the Holocene on Thursday, August 16th!
If you’ve never seen them before, I encourage you to watch this. If you’re at all offended by anything you see or hear from this act, you’re probably lacking a sense of humor, and should seek professional help. Life is serious enough. Take a break and cut loose with Dad Works Hard. It does a body good!
Wrapping up the night was a band that I rank in the Top 10 bands out of Portland. Foxy Lemon delivers everything I desire in a live act… catchy songs, loads of attitude, top notch musicians and last but not least, a real frontman. Backed by a phenomenal rhythm section (Lachlan Hall on Bass and the amazing Eddie Steele on drums) and a pair of incredibly tight guitar players (Scott Keeley and Kevin Keeley), singer Keishi Ihara brings a special performance every night. He gyrates and strides confidently across the stage (as he calls it “purging Satan”), bringing about a vibe that takes you back to some of the classic singers like Robert Plant, Steven Tyler and David Coverdale. His delivery is soulful and his style is unmatchable. Portland has many great bands, but very few have a singer who can hold the crowd like Keishi. On stage he is a powerhouse. Off stage, he’s warm friendly and very humble. This vibe is apparent in every member of Foxy Lemon. These are a bunch of down to earth guys who just happen to be extremely talented. They’d have no trouble holding their own on an arena stage, so I always feel blessed to be able to see them in a small club. Catch these guys before the closest seat to the stage is out of your price range!
Radio Hot Tub’s goal has always been to bring these local bands’ songs to the audience who may never have heard them before, and also to bring the local music community closer together. Bands that met that night had never seen each other perform before, and now are making plans on doing more live shows together in the future. What can you do to help our local music scene grow and prosper? Simple! Get out to a live show in one of the many venues around town. Not sure what bands to go see? Check out Radio Hot Tub and listen to the music. You’re sure to find a band that’ll grab your ear. Find out where they’re performing and go see them. We are so lucky to live here! Take advantage.. and thanks in advance from Radio Hot Tub and all of the bands that make us sound so great!
Scott “Uncle Scotty” Hammond has been a radio show host for over 20 years. He brought his internet radio station, Radio Hot Tub, to Portland and has been a strong supporter of the local music scene. He currently does live shows featuring local rock bands alternating Friday mornings on Freeform Portland.
Cliches exist because more often than not they are true. That plus the fact that we love to speak in metaphor, saying things such as “I know that place like the back of my hand,” which conveys that we have an intimate knowledge of a particular place, instead of just matter of factly saying, “I know that place well”.
In Rock N’ Roll circles one of the most common cliches is that your third album is the most difficult one. Speaking as a bystander I would think that such a thing would be true. After all, keeping with the theme of cliches here, “You have your whole life to write your first album.” So the first one is generally bursting with a lifetime’s experience and expression. A second album will often have been comprised of songs not used on the first album, and perhaps a few new ones. But by the third album, the well is dry, the box is empty, the screen is blank, the songwriter in the band may as well be Waiting for Godot, if Godot in this case were the gift of illumination and expression.
The grind of being in a Rock N’ Roll band must be incredibly nerve wracking. Most young bands are almost always on tour, re-locating themselves nightly from place to place, each venue virtually the same as the night before, identical hotel rooms and as like as not clubs or event halls, with stages and light arrays, sound technicians all with the same odd playlists blaring over the PA system, examples of “Good Music,” not music that is good.
With this sort of lifestyle, it is no surprise to find that third albums can be the most challenging to write and record. In addition to the lifestyle, one would think that by the third album, the record label footing the bill would be turning the screws as well, looking to recoup some of their investment in the band. By the third record, the record label would definitely be looking for a commercial and broad appealing radio hit. Something that would increase the band’s fanbase and public profile.
Here are a few examples of difficult third albums, some of which changed the bands that recorded them, for better or worse.
On their first two records, the band had a certain density of sound, twin guitars, thumping bass, saxophone interjections over a steady drumbeat, with Richard Butler decrying over the beautiful chaos in a voice that combined the best punk snarl with a David Bowie influence,
But, by the time it came to record the third album the band had splintered, with only John Aston left to play guitar. The band opted to record their third record in America with Todd Rundgren, and by all reports it was a troubled marriage of ideas. But the results speak for themselves. The songs on this record have density replaced with sonic space, psychedelic overtones, heady strings and an underlying positivity in the lyrics that had been perhaps absent or less obvious on previous albums. The first single from the record, “Love my way” became and MTV staple and the band’s biggest hit thus far.
With their first two albums behind them, expectations were high for these sons of Liverpool to deliver an album that would please fans and their label alike. Sadly, initial sessions for the third album were not to the label’s nor their manager’s taste, and the band was sent back to the drawing board to figure out how to write a proper song. The early examples of songs that later would be on the proper release entitled “Porcupine” were supposedly dense and all in the key of “D”. Undoubtedly making the songs indistinguishable from one to the other. The band seemingly took their manager’s advice, reconvened and worked at verse, chorus, verse. Around this time, the band used radio sessions for the famed John Peel show to virtual demos of new songs on which they were working, giving avid listeners a taste, a tease, of what to expect when their third record was released.
“Porcupine” upon its release become the band’s biggest selling record to date, which included the singles “The Cutter” and “The Back Of Love”.
By 1985, critics and fans had placed R.E.M. as the spearhead of a movement of American bands, grouped together under the heading of “College rock,” so-called because the bands were receiving a predominant amount of airplay on radio stations located on college campuses. The bands in this make-believe grouping had little or nothing in common outside of the fact they were receiving such airplay and they all were happening at the same time.
For their third album. R.E.M. choose to worked with famed English producer, Joe Boyd. This meant relocating for a time from their home base in Athens, Georgia to London for the duration of the recording. A rainy cold and miserable London. One imagines the weather added a moodiness to the recording of the third album. A Record not quite as inviting as their prior two records. This record was a little bit less shiny, less jangly, and had a diversity of musical stylings. The opening track, “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” being steeped a dirge, with almost a dark psychedelic ending drawn across a chorus of strings. The lead off single “Can’t get there from here” uncharacteristically had an R ‘N’ B vibe, and was simply a fun song for fun’s sake. The lyrics on this album were seemingly drawn from tales of real life in and around their hometown, no doubt embellished for effect.
This was a transitional album for the band. The last album on which they might sound like the R.E.M of old.
1992, fourteen years after having broken up and going their separate ways, the original members of the band, Television, regrouped to record their third album for Capitol Records. During the years apart, the band’s guitarists, Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd had been active and had both released a series of solo records, to limited commercial success but critical acclaim.
Upon hearing that the famed band that set the stage for CBGB’s had reformed, ears were pricked up worldwide to hear the two guitars twist and churn against one another. Despite the years apart, the sound that defined the band was clearly evident in songs like “Call Mr. Lee” and “Mars.” While on songs such as “1880 or so” & “Rhyme” the band expanded their sonic palette with underlying twang and muscular notes being pitted against flitting volume knob stabs of expression. A friend of mine described the album as having every great guitar tone. Despite being dismissed by Richard lloyd as “Televison-lite,” the album is a fine listen, and as one would expect the collected songs as recorded were mere stepping stones, or fireflies in a jar, to how the songs would expand and explode in live situations.
It is hard to think of a more difficult third album by a rock band then the third album by Big Star. The band had been whittled down by time to be only two members at the time. Alex Chilton & Jody Stephens. Perhaps brought on by the mis-steps by the band and their label regarding the previous two records, and the utter lack of any commercial success. It must have been tough to stick around and be a member of the band, Big Star.
For all intents and purposes, the third record plays out like an Alex Chilton solo record. The compiled songs for the album display a raw nerve of emotion, and could easily be described as a nagging toothache of an album. Sessions for the album were reported Halted by producer John Fry and the songs were mixed in 1975. However, the tapes remained in the can and were not released until being acquired by PVC Records in 1978.
Two songs from the album, “Kanga Roo” and “Holocaust” would be covered by the band This Mortal Coil on their album, “It’ll end in tears” released by 4AD records, and for many people it would be the first time they ever heard these haunting and beautiful songs.
Despite the troubled birth the album experienced, it remains one of the most beautiful and honest records to have been set to tape.
Noah Fence hosts It’s a Nice World To Visit – Punk, Post-Punk, Garage Rock, Psych…A mix of new tracks and old favorites. On Freeform Portland Radio.
Being an exceedingly average guy, I spent the years following high school dabbling in community college, working in kitchens at local restaurants, and spending time with friends.
Much of the time was generally spent driving around, talking about what to get up to. As might be expected in a coastal town, we would frequently end up on a beach, and drink standing round a bonfire, while further discussing what to do to next. This led to late in the night exchanges in the parking lot above the beach, after the bonfire was nothing but cooling ashes, as we shuffled our feet, practically knocking heads, rarely coming to a unified conclusion as to what came next.
Arriving at a consensus between four to ten people seemed to be impossible, no matter who might have been a member of our group. The inability to agree on one sort of destination meant of course we found ourselves later drinking coffee at a local Swensens or Denny’s. Both of these were the usual fall back sort of hangouts for us, that led us nowhere per se. Just hopped up on caffeine before heading home to restless sleep.
My personal experience leaves me with stunned amazement that rock n’ roll bands can even form, let alone exist for a period of time, write songs, perform together, release albums, tour, and so on, all without brutal physical violence and several arrests between them.
The odds of people meeting who are like-minded enough to accomplish the tasks required to become a successful band are beyond my average ability to calculate. I doubt there is a mathematician of a high enough level to figure out the chances either.
Consider what it must take for four people to meet, for four people to play the right instruments in tandem with each other, for four people to become a band that possesses drive and raw talent. I cannot even begin to fathom how it happens at all, let alone the hundreds of times. People meet, form bands, and make records that I, and people the world over, hold in high regard.
Perhaps aligning together over a single purpose makes the group dynamic more functional, better able to withstand the differing opinions of four or so individuals who struggle for expression with a setting that favors one individual. This is most likely the singer, being the one out front, the one heard by the fans, while the other three rumble behind them, holding them up, backing them up, no less the stars of the group too, by any measurable means.
This single-minded group dynamic can be found in such groups as The Stooges, who lived in a communal fashion, all of their time, in essence, spent in the company of each other. So that when it came time to perform or record their first couple of records, The Stooges (1969) and Fun House (1970), the group struck as one: one arm, one note, one mind. Hive-Group.
Also, single-mindedness can be the result of same taste in music or facets of culture. As with the band Joy Division. Their four members attended a concert or two by Sex Pistols in Manchester, England, and were thus prompted to form a band. So, taste in music, such as a love of The Stooges and Sex Pistols brought these four together. Still, the odds of such a union leave me stunned. Granted, the chances of them meeting were greatly improved by the fact that it was but a small microcosm of the city’s population that attended the Sex Pistols concerts. Meeting or seeing each other in a room of 30 or 40 people is definitely an idea that I can grasp. But having made that decision together to form a band, who could possibly conceive that it would work, let alone produce two of the greatest records of the post-punk era, “Unknown Pleasures” and “Closer.” I would have thought that the talent and drive to bring such a thing to fruition would sooner tear the four band members apart than achieve a result of any kind.
Or, as was the case with Echo & The Bunnymen, the original members were part of the local music scene in their hometown, Liverpool, in which many other musicians formed bands, broke up bands, exchanged members with a regular fluid nature, until the right combination of individuals met to form the band that would be theirs for a lifetime. In truth, many of these pre-fame bands in the post-punk Liverpool scene never got past the birthing stage. The nugget of the idea itself. And if they did, the band died on the vine of a few practice sessions. As was the case with pre-Echo & The Bunnymen band, A Shallow Madness, which included among its members Ian McCulloch (Echo & The Bunnymen) & Julian Cope (The Teardrop Explodes).
With the band U2, the members met while still in High School, responding to an advert placed by Larry Mullen Jr., soon to be the drummer in one of the most popular rock n’ roll bands of all time. The four members met and practiced at the school, bonding over a mutual love of punk rock, such bands as Television and Talking Heads from New York City, and other post-punk bands closer to home, like Joy Division and The Skids. While the will to form a band was clearly evident, the skill and technique to play their instruments had not found its way to their nimble fingers. This led them to discover their own unique sound, a chief component of which was the one of kind, echo-laden guitar played by The Edge, clearly breaking new ground for the instrument, leading it into the future.
Back in the United States, R.E.M. formed as much around mutual taste, as it did musical distaste. The four founding members came together with two of them being somewhat skilled at playing their instruments, while guitarist Peter Buck and singer Michael Stipe were somewhat novices in their designated positions. This led to a decision making process that involved elimination. “We aren’t going to do this.” “We aren’t going to do that.” What remained, for lack of wanting, become the band’s sound. A serious love of music and hard work paid off well for the little band from Athens, Georgia. They developed a unique sound in contrast to the current trends and sounds of their time. By touring seemingly endlessly, and teaching themselves to write great songs, their fan base grew somewhat organically with each record. By default really, they spearheaded a college rock radio movement that gave exposure to all sorts of bands, helping the careers of dozens. Not many of them, if any, sounded exactly like R.E.M..
What strikes me about these examples is that against odds I obviously can not conceive, these bands had members who came together, made great music, and stayed together. Granted in the case of The Stooges, the band lineup changed after the second record, but the third record sounds so different that it might as well be a different band. The others mentioned here formed and stayed together to gift us with unique and amazing music. Joy Division sadly ended with the death of their singer, Ian Curtis, yet the remaining members went on to form New Order, adding another musical chapter to their book of life. The founding members of R.E.M. continued as one until 1996, when drummer Bill Berry left the band. The remaining lineup continued, never officially adding a drummer, keyboardist or second guitarist to their roster. The three of them found their way, finally ending their career of their own volition, exiting with albums “Accelerate” and “Collapse Into Now” as a powerful one-two punch. U2 has been a going concern for four decades now, with the same members as when they first came together.
It is hard to point to one aspect of these bands and say that is the quality by which they found stardom and fame. Certainly drive, talent, ambition, a love of music are all important, but the relationship within a band, of its members, is as difficult and straining as a marriage. Worse perhaps, as it involves more minds crashing over the same issue. Four or more, pulling this way and that.
I would have to assume that the two qualities defining the bands we came to know, bands that last and are able to create wonderful music, are love and compromise. One or the other would certainly get groups moving along for a while, but it might take both to help them be more than a distraction for its members until such time as they graduate from college. It takes both, and more, to turn a band into a lifestyle.
Noah Fence hosts It’s a Nice World To Visit – Punk, Post-Punk, Garage Rock, Psych…A mix of new tracks and old favorites. On Freeform Portland Radio.
My friends often tell me how cool The Vern is. They say it’s the greatest old punk bar in Portland, and it’s staggering distance to my house. So why haven’t I been there?
Well, I finally had a reason. On Saturday March 3rd, local favorites, The Ransom were playing their last ever show there.
I enter the front door of The Vern and it is a party. There are wall to wall people, loud ones, laughing ones, pushing ones, drinking ones…long haired bikers, glammers, preppies, skinheads, punks, Moms, Dads, friends, and local celebrities all piled into this place. One of the opening bands has just struck the last chord, so I make my way to the bar to get a beer. It’s so crowded, the bartender realizes they’ve just run out of glasses, so I buy a can of beer and head to the other side of the bar where the live music is happening.
I see my friends from New Not Normals (who opened the show) near the Video Lottery machines, so I grab a spot next to them. The room is a mass of bodies. The air is filled with energy. A mishmosh of different tribes all converged in this room to say goodbye to one of Portland’s coolest punk bands.
The band plugs in, tunes up, the room surges forward. The owner of the bar walks to the microphone and delivers his farewell speech to the drummer of the band and his long-time employee, Faith Davenport, in front of a full house. She’s embarking on new adventures in Buffalo…and tonight, Portland is going to send her off in a big way.The room is emotional, excited, hot, and ready to rumble… Faith does a couple of rolls on the drum kit, and suddenly The Ransom is ON!
If there was any doubt about what kind of legacy this band is leaving behind, it was all made clear tonight. Every song is flawless, energized, and real. Singer/bassist Charley Nims belts out clever lyrics with focused intensity while sneaking amazing little basslines underneath. Guitarist David Nelson is masterful, showcasing a variety of talents throughout the set. This is much more than a punk band. This band knows how to play their instruments. We’re rocking full throttle, and then the band announces that a guest will be joining them on stage.
The room goes wild as Toody Cole from Dead Moon joins the band for a rendition of “Running Away From You” – an old song by The Rats (Toody’s band before Dead Moon). Soon after, the band is joined by Charley’s former bandmate, Jerry A from Poison Idea. They perform a song called “Psychodelic Nightmare” – by Dead Moon. In between every song there are hugs, smiles, drinking, and more hugging.
Top pic is Jerry A from Poison Idea, bottom pic is Toody Cole from Dead Moon
David strums a surf rock guitar chord, the band breaks into “Echo Harbor,” and the room lights up. As quickly as they started it, they ended it.
“That’s it,” says Charley. More hugging, drinking, and the crowd, slowly chanting, “one more, one more, one more…”
The band plugs in and rips through their song “Happy Hour,” unplugs, and that was the last song we’ll ever hear from The Ransom.
Or is it? Let’s chat with drummer Faith Davenport.
Faith, that was absolutely incredible. I know you’ve got a lot of people to talk to and party with, but let’s take a second and talk about this band. Tonight was your last gig. What was the first gig for The Ransom?
We had a few songs pretty close to done and Charley booked us our first show at Star Bar. He was pretty resistant about singing himself, but I secretly wondered later if that wasn’t his plan all along! Anyway, not only did Charley step up to the plate, he hit lyrical home runs – one after another after another.
I know you’ve had lots of amazing times with these guys. What’s it like working with Charley?
My least favorite thing about playing with Charley is that I don’t get to watch him play from an audience’s perspective. He gets SO into it! He’ll dip clear to the ground with his bass tuning pegs aimed to the floor. He’s just so in the moment, intense, and straight up fun to watch! The other thing I’ll say about Charley is that he practices a LOT. Probably daily. Not only does he dig playing, he takes his role in the band pretty seriously. More than a few times I’ve been out with him having a can of beer somewhere, and he’ll eventually bow out saying “well, I’m gonna go home and play my fiddle.”
How about David?
David is the guy that everyone raves most to me about after our shows. I really can’t say enough about his guitar playing. I don’t play that instrument, but everyone I’ve known who does, says he’s AMAZING. And I completely agree. He can mimic almost any tone or song, but mostly comes up with really really unique original “David” sounds. He’s big on practicing too, especially if there’s a particularly grueling repetitive riff in a song. He’s also written a good number of our more catchy tunes. Throw Garbage, Go Electric, and Sidewinder to name a few. David has been a great reality check for me as a player over the years. He’ll suggest a beat or roll that maybe I can’t pull off, which challenges me to take another lesson, or spend more time wood shedding. It’s humbling. And good. I know that David will have no trouble finding another group to play with post Ransom.
What’s the Ransom’s best kept secret?
The Ransom’s best kept secret has got to be Charley’s lyrics. We’ve always had trouble getting any P.A. to keep up with how loud we are!
What will you miss most about Portland?
What I’ll miss most about Portland – easy – the friends I’ve made. Damn, you’re gonna make me cry!
***
Charley, David and Faith are breaking up the band, but there is a silver lining to this story. The Ransom is in studio recording their music, including some new stuff, and even though they won’t be in the clubs, they’ll be in our ears. We’ll have more from The Ransom soon!
Scott “Uncle Scotty” Hammond has been a radio show host for over 20 years. He brought his internet radio station, Radio Hot Tub, to Portland and has been a strong supporter of the local music scene. He currently does live shows featuring local rock bands alternating Friday mornings on Freeform Portland.
Punk subculture was born in the 1970’s from oppressed youth who wanted no part in conforming to the colonial mass culture surrounding them. The movement was “against it”, a rejection of societal norms based on behavior, attitude, music and fashion sense; a resistance to consumerism and a mass media that appease patriarchal heteronormative standards and reinforce white upper-class privilege. Contemporary punks today could argue that past punk culture in western societies has morphed into the mainstream, co-opted and codified by the dominant discourse and now part of a “poser” subculture appropriated by corporate power.
The birth of Punk Culture in Southern California dates back to 1976-1979, with the formation of key bands: The Flesh Eaters, The Germs, The Weirdos, Angry Samoans, Circle Jerks, Agent Orange, Black Flag, The Plugz, and Middle Class. In 1980-1983, the emergence of hardcore bands such as Fear, China White, The Minutemen, Social Distortion, D.I, T.S.O.L., Suicidal Tendencies, The Bags, and San-Francisco-based Dead Kennedys added more voices to the mix, and, in the case of The Bags, more diversity, with two female lead singers. The hardcore punk scene in Los Angeles and Orange County inspired an emergence of conflicting gangs, predominately white and sometimes racist, who would occasionally face off with black gangs in Watts, adding to the scene discourse. Punk shows, renowned for their mosh pits, always had to contend with interventionism from police, who did not understand the culture of moshing and saw only frenzied displays of mob violence and youth aggression needing to be stopped.
Photo from CVLT Nation
Although interpreted by 1980s music journalists as a reaction against Flower Power, California hardcore could be seen instead as an angry middle finger to eight years of Ronald Reagan’s disastrous stewardship as governor, which provided plenty of political fodder for the punk gristmill. After the incompetent B-movie actor ascended to the Presidency in 1980, “Reaganomics” allowed West Coast punk to export its message of discontent to the rest of the nation’s youth, becoming a coping mechanism to counter failed policies that would ultimately tank the American economy in 1982. Ineffective and intrusive initiatives like D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) targeted gangs, drugs and violence by further embedding police forces into public educational systems. Like rap, hardcore punk gave a voice to the massive poverty and urban inequity crippling the country throughout the decade. As these voices of cultural discontent grew louder, Tipper Gore and the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) became the moral enforcers of the 1st Amendment, convinced that penis posters, pentagrams, and obscenities by black people were the primary corruptive influence in American society, not gun-running to Nicaraguan fascists or training murderers and rapists at the School of the Americas. Among the hardcore bands singled out, Dead Kennedys would never recover from their PMRC showdown, with their label Alternative Tentacles folding from the financial pressures. To the PMRC’s logic, instead of the music being a rumination on a morally bankrupt ruling class leading the nation to the verge of financial ruin and/or nuclear war, it was instead the main cause of corruption. Ironically, nothing brought the various subculture factions together like the PMRC’s music labeling efforts. Even John Denver, in his damning testimony, understood how these messages reflected an angry youth coping with an American social fabric unravelling around them.
The punk scene in Los Angeles is still flourishing today, and the concept of punk in L.A. is staying true to its historical origins. Los Punks: We Are All We Have, a documentary directed by Angela Boatwright, portrays the current flourishing backyard Latino punk scene in South Central, Watts, East L.A. and Boyle Heights. The documentary provides intimate perspectives, following five punk youth who are involved in the backyard punk scene. Each person chronicles their biopsychosocial stressors of coping with poverty, mental illness, absent parents, and depressed communities, while trying to create a home for similar youth reacting to their own lived oppressions.
Boatwright highlights punks such as Nacho Corrupted, the lead singer for Corrupted Youth. Corrupted is responsible for organizing and promoting thousands of backyard shows from the greater L.A. area, using the accessibility of social media to get the word out and creating flyers on his computer that still adhere to the aesthetics of drawn punk show flyers from the 1980s, made popular by artists such as Raymond Pettibon.
Raymond Pettibon
Also profiled is Billy Famine, the singer from Withdrawal Symptoms, who credits the backyard punk scene in helping him steer clear from the street gangs that have ensnared many of his relatives. He talks about watching kids get shot in front of his house and states, “That could’ve been me.” There is a sense of inclusiveness within each narrative of Los Punks, where no one cares if people are gay, straight, cholo, gothic or punk. People’s social lives are interwoven because of the commonality of minority existence, the solidarity often inherent in coping with poverty and institutionalized oppression of class and race that continues to victimize lower income neighborhoods in L.A. and other cities in the United States.
There are, of course, the irate neighbors trying to shut down shows because of property destruction and supposed criminal elements. The ubiquitous L.A.P.D. helicopter spotlights attempt to disperse crowds by exposing them; but instead of shutting them down, they add an ambience similar to spotlights at an indoor concert venue, which only acts to intensify the feeling of empowered resistance as the party rages on. Alex, the singer from Psyk Ward who credits his life to punk rock, describes his countless attempts to complete suicide, explaining that he wrote songs to cope with being institutionalized for suicidal and homicidal ideation.
April Desmadre photo by Angela Boatwright
Boatwright interviews April Desmadre, a 15-year-old female backyard show promoter from Watts. She has an absent mother and does not disclose any information about her father. She describes watching a woman in Watts get killed by a vehicle and seeing her eyes pop out of her head, nonchalantly laughing. As a promoter, April collects the money from each show she sets up, and this helps her live and pay rent. She credits punk shows for helping her cope with her mental health and life stressors, reporting, “I just wait to take it out in the pit.” April is a resourceful teen and a positive, strong woman, adept in organizing and supporting herself through a resilience fueled by the love of punk rock culture.
Gary, the singer from Rhythmic Asylum, acknowledges that the backyard punks are people from low income backgrounds. He speaks about the lack of social systems access in South Central and Watts, using standpoint theory to explain the prominence of crime, gangs, drugs and prostitution, where escaping through punk culture is a coping mechanism for oppressed people living in the hood. For his moral worldview, Gary credits his parents, who were refugees from Guatemala and El Salvador, fleeing civil war and military dictatorship. They understand the interconnectivity between his simultaneous pursuit of law school and punk rock while living in a 1 bedroom apartment with his family. Gary calls himself a “creator of the culture,” drawing flyers, promoting and empowering his community.
As much as it might remind of the past, Los Punks: We Are All We Have portrays a new breed of punk Latino artists, one still steeped in working-class realities but this time focusing on youth of color and women. The film calls attention to the continued lack of upward mobility in South Central, Watts, East L.A. and Boyle Heights, where punks and people who reside in the neighborhoods choose to respond critically and actively to the world around them, fostering resistance while celebrating how to cope with entrenched and continuing social inequity.
By Karen Lee (Weekend Family Music Hour) & Jim Bunnelle (Center for Cassette Studies).
Today is Amancio D’Silva’s birthday. A master Indian jazz guitarist who was known for his own recordings and collaborations with Joe Harriet and Stan Tracey.
