"Local Flavors"
Tango Alpha Tango
Hello Morning
No Kind of Rider
Violet Isle
- Crystal Hotel & Ballroom - Crystal Ballroom |
- Thursday, May 19
- 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show |
- $5 at the door |
- 21 and over
About Tango Alpha Tango
Featuring members of the now-defunct Carolines, Tango Alpha Tango play an exciting jam mash up of folky tunes combined with Indie rock and roll and some western swing.
"Tango Alpha Tango makes exactly the kind of rock 'n' roll I can get behind; it's sweeping, dramatic and unapologetically evil at the most surprising of moments. Tango relies on slinking bass lines and lyrics so enticing they feel like they're being whispered in your ear during a slow dance." - Willamette Week
"Tango Alpha Tango have a bit more urgency to their sound, and cultivate a delicate, damaged beauty; the songs are either folkier and more pointed, or trashier and glammier" - Portland Mercury
Nathan Trueb: lead vocal, acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica
Mirabai Carter-Trueb: bass guitar
Aaron Trueb: piano, Rhodes electric piano, keyboards, vocals
Walker Beckman: drums, percussion, vocals
- MySpace page:
- http://www.myspace.com/tangoalphatango
- Facebook page:
- http://www.facebook.com/tangoalphatango
About Hello Morning
The March 2011 release of their album, entitled A Fiction, put Hello Goodmorning on a strong pathway to success in creating a very unique musical and lyrical identity. These boys from hometown Portland Oregon were united by their passion for good music and years of camaraderie. Their sound is a rousing, epic rock fused with post-modern synths matched by an infatuation with space-age sound.
"A rather wonderful pop/rock ethic which I think is fresh as hell, even though it's got a reminiscent quality to it... a little bit Ting Tings... a little bit Pink Floyd... like a heavier version of Turin Brakes... a really interesting sound." - WOXY
Each of the members of Hello Morning has spent years in various rock, pop, electro-pop, and folk outfits. Now scene veterans, they've come together to form a band that can do things their way, with the wisdom and talent earned by experience, but with an excitement and focus on exploring what guitar-driven rock can still be, can still say, can still do, and discovering new ways to transmit that sound. Following the successful reception of Hello Morning's debut EP, the band spent the year playing shows around the Northwest with international touring bands such as Two Door Cinema Club and Wang Chung, as well as local favorites like Climber, Crosstide, and Mnemonic.
Henry Curl - vocals, guitars
Kevin Breuner - guitars
Benjamin Sims - guitars, keyboards, bass, percussion
Peter Swenson - drums
About the new album
When Hello Morning found it was time to start recording their second album, they found the songs they'd written shared some emotional states and narrative threads - love, trust, commitment, and communication between friends and lovers, both real and imagined. These songs culminated in "A Fiction," a diverse collection of modern rock explorations, the recording of which was entirely funded by Hello Morning's loyal fan base. The band launched a fan-funding campaign, spread the word, and their fans heeded the call, exceeding the goal with time to spare. In turn, the band found they could then record an entire album's worth of songs, so they booked extra studio time, recording again at Secret Society with mixing from Jeff Stuart Saltzman (Death Cab For Cutie, Menomena, Decemberists) and Kyle Lockwood (Climber), who also makes a guest appearance playing strings.
Musically, Hello Morning both polished and expanded their approach, retaining their majestic, uplifting sound on "The Fear," a postmodern mid-tempo anthem with a deep pocket and "A Good Year," a minor key whirlwind which calls to mind Death Cab and Interpol. The striking new sound of the band becomes more evident on "Letters," which seamlessly merges a double-time drum machine, a live dub drum beat, and haunting guitars that sound like icicles and arctic wind. All the while, Henry Curl, gifted with an effortless and emotive voice, sings a Neil Young-ian melody. The song evokes unsent letters and unrealized dreams. "All I Knew," one of the last songs to be written, sprang to life one magical night and stands as the album's emotional highlight, going from a widescreen velvety throb to a psychedelic freak out, in the course of seven electric minutes.
- website:
- http://hellomorningband.com
- Twitter:
- http://twitter.com/hellomorningpdx
- MySpace:
- http://www.myspace.com/hellomorningband
- Facebook page:
- http://www.facebook.com/hellomorningband
About No Kind of Rider
No Kind of Rider's back story begins with youth jazz band, continues through high school and college, includes an apartment in Tulsa, Okla., heads west in a moving truck and resolves to the moment in Portland, Ore. And while the band's members- old friends Jon, Sam, Jeremy, Joe and Wes - acknowledge that their shared history and friendships serve as a much appreciated glue, it is the way they push through the present and future that inspires their melodic, experimental garage rock sound.
As heard on their 2008 EP, The Black Swan EP, and more recently on Danger (2010), their raw, bare-knuckled rock 'n' roll comes complete with well-crafted melodies, revealing lyrics, delirious harmonies, galactic keyboards, slick bass, buzz saw percussions and dual guitar work that ranges from sonic to spectral. There's an uprooting quality to the music, as if the earth is being churned in a steady metrical fashion. And just as a listener may feel careened too far ahead or flung too deeply into a well-plotted turn, No Kind of Rider pulls them back with grace and ease.
Each member of No Kind of Rider is hyper-aware of what he and his fellow band mates bring to the studio and live sets, creating a sense of well-planned orchestration even when the only plan is to push the limits of song and sound.
As Sam Alexander, who shares lyrical and guitar duties with Jeremy Louis, puts it "At the end of the day, we trust each other's tastes. We know what we're going to bring, and we're confident enough to go along and communicate what's working and what isn't there yet."
This constant feedback loop permeates through the rest of the band - from Sam and Jeremy on guitar and vocals to Jon Van Patten's drum beats, Joe Page's keyboard arrangements and Wes Johnson's bass lines
Individually and as a group, their blue-collar musical sensibilities spring from the desire to sweat over their instruments and create something they haven't heard before. And while their musical tastes come from a range of post-rock, garage, blues, and even shoegaze elements, their direct influences point back to one another, driving them to act and respond to what each other is creating in order to generate a unique sound that pushes against the center.
About Violet Isle
Violet Isle has been steadily playing their infectious style of music in the NW since August of 2008. With a sound aptly described as "finely crafted, song driven, indie rock," the band has been compared to The Velvet Teen. Violet Isle's style has a fresh take on the indie rock music scene, having built their music around the strong melodies, lyrics and unique chord progressions of their lead vocalist and acoustic guitarist, Sean Garcia.
Violet Isle has proven to be an up & coming band to watch. In Spring of '09 they were selected through a Sonicbids band search conducted by Chicago based label, Failure to Communicate Records, to be part of the labels Radiohead Tribute Album. They appear on the record with their version of "Lucky" along with 21 other bands, including Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls and Scotland band, Frightened Rabbit. In spring of 2010, through another Sonicbids band search,they were also selected by Legendary Producer Ron Nevison as a potential band to produce. They ran a successful album fund raising campaign through Kickstarter.com where fans came in over a 40 day period and pre-ordered their debut album and merch, helping them exceed their goal. In August 2010 the band released that debut album "I am ivy" to an enthusiastic crowd at one of Portland's premier night clubs, the Doug Fir Lounge.
- Facebook page:
- http://www.facebook.com/violetisle
- MySpace page:
- http://www.myspace.com/violetisle
- website:
- http://www.violetislemusic.com
