If there's one thing Portland's music lovers are good at, it's making the touring acts they love feel right at home. North Carolina's Avett Brothers are a great example of a band that seems to enjoy a home away from home here in the Pacific Northwest, as their barnburning turn at last year's Pickathon and sold out performance at the Crystal Ballroom this past April can attest.
The band returns to Portland tonight with a new EP, The Second Gleam, to their credit, and while their live shows burst with the kind of frantic energy usually reserved for acts of a more, shall we say, heavy metal bent, the EP puts the spotlight on the Avetts' softer side. Indeed, the standout track, "Murder In the City," belies its title as something of a roundabout ode to family, and one can't help but feel their heartstrings being tugged at a bit. Portland, apparently, is the only one noticing the band recently: they just followed up a string of sold out shows with the announcement that they've signed to Rick Rubin's American label and are planning a full-length release for the spring of '09. Tonight's show at the Oregon Zoo also features opener Shawn Mullins and is the final date in the zoo's 2008 summer schedule.
Stream: The Avett Brothers' opbmusic in-studio session
Also this week, Wisconsin's Bon Iver brings his haunting songs to the Aladdin Theater on Friday night, a long way from where they were originally recorded for last year's For Emma, Forever Ago. In case you missed it, Justin Vernon retreated to a hunting cabin in his native state in the dead of winter a couple of years back, and emerged with his stunning debut, recorded in between bouts of wood-chopping and fire-stoking. Vernon uses his ethereal falsetto to great effect throughtout much of the album, and it should be interesting to hear the songs fleshed out with a full band. A.A. Bondy, speaking of solid debuts, opens the show.
MP3: Bon Iver, from For Emma, Forever Ago- "Skinny Love"
Also Friday, in a week full of pretty big deals (The Walkmen, Sondre Lerche, Beck), none casts the huge shadow of Willie Nelson, an American icon who has not only managed to stay relevant late into his life, but has done so by doing some of his best and most adventurous work over the past decade or so. His latest, a live collaboration with jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, represents yet another musical branch for the tireless artistic soul (recent years have seen Willie cut a blues album, a reggae album, and an entire album of Cindy Walker songs, in addition to collaborating with the likes of Ryan Adams, Daniel Lanois and Emmylou Harris, among others). He plays this year's Oregon State Fair in Salem in what is surely to become an increasingly rare chance to see him live.
August 24, 2008 at 3:25pm by gunky
I'd forgotten about Bon Iver. Thanks for playing that. I might have to go get the disc. Probably can't make the show (where and when, again?)
August 24, 2008 at 3:29pm by jpetersen
Yeah, I love that song-- it's six minutes plus and I still don't want it to end.
That's Friday at the Aladdin (opener's a good one, too-- AA Bondy).
August 24, 2008 at 4:37pm by zed
AU is local to Portland, correct? I like it a lot. Thanks for playing it!
August 24, 2008 at 4:42pm by inmemoryofjohnpeel
Really enjoyed the first hour or so, only one poor song (I'm guessing it was the highly over-rated Black Stripes), then the Venn Diagram of our tastes ceased to overlap for a while. 5 stars for Parenthetical Girls, I'm interviewing him (them-her) this week. The CD (out next month) is not all as good as that stand-out track, but is very original and worth getting.
BTW: I'm thoroughly enjoying your inclusion of an Afro-Beat derivative into the show via Issa Bagayogo, but I suspect it's not generally popular.
August 24, 2008 at 4:50pm by jpetersen
AU is local, yes....
Ha, the "Venn Diagram of our tastes," as you put it-- I like that. Odd, though, that the assumption is that I'm in love with everything I'm playing. That's just not how it works, exactly.
Anyway, I like the Issa Bagayogo and would probably play more if I could find some current stuff along the same lines. His has a nice retro vibe to it, reminds me a bit of Hugh Masakela's '70's output. Yeah, probably generally unpopular, but, you know...
August 24, 2008 at 5:03pm by inmemoryofjohnpeel
Talking about the rain, on Blind Pilot's first bike tour they made it to SF without any rain. NOt so this tour, it will be interest ing to see if the additional two chose to go on with the next leg south after the PDX appearances.
Issa Bagayogo seems to me to be filling Fela Kuti's shoes better than his many offspring... a bit different but has the same authority in the performance.
Anyhow cheers JP, any news on the midweek radio show?
August 24, 2008 at 5:08pm by jpetersen
Heh, no, no news-- strangely silent, in fact. I think it needs to be a listener spearheaded thing. OPB listens to its listeners, if only they were all so gung-ho about the idea as you :).
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