New Mexico, the land of enchantment

Whenever I have traveled through the Southwest, I am often struck by the beauty of the textures, the colors and the light... ...a handmade chair, in the low winter sunlight. ...the geometry of the shadows and snow on cubical rocks. ...the contrast of a snowy roof against that deep blue sky. ...the eroded holes of a soft sandstone cliff. ...reaching aspen branches. ...electric wires meeting an adobe wall. ...barbed wire in a snowy pasture in Taos. ...blocks of adobe in a city center. ...the sun along a crack in an old shed.... America can seem so vast, but theses small scale scenes out in the back hollows or on the front porch can show you what it's really made of. It's the government I hate and this land that I love. It is amazing out there... December, 2009.

New Music Review - Forest World "Super Bright Skullz" EP

Super Bright Skullz is the new EP from Provo based electropop duo Forest World. This is clearly music to dance with. The bass knocks hard, with kinetic snares that punctuate hi-hats and cowbells. Drawn out background synths hold the feeling while melodic arpeggios bounce in around the drums, amid errant 8-bit accents. The songs build up and release with extended breakdowns that riff off all the elements and create the sense of a live mix. Throughout the EP you hear all of the sounds interact in different ways that continuously re-frame the overall feeling. Both lo-fi and clean tones keep the vibe crispity crunchety in your ears. Sean and Sam share the vocals in a pleasant male/female harmony that gives a sense of dialogue to the lyrics, which seem to be heartfelt glimpses of hope and connection in the modern mundane. I love the refrain from the title track, "all of this is just as real as you can make it," spun through a dance floor crusher that I will be stoked to experience live. The track that challenged me most was 'Jodie Jensen' which is apparently an ode to a high school crush and thrusts a grip of awkward romantic attachment over a sparse beat that takes two minutes to come back from its initial despair. It does come back though, and they follow it with 'The Singularity' which is also low-key but draws me in with its story about living to age 100, only to be alone with nothing but the songs written in your youth. Overall the lyrics are emotional and real, but not overbearing, and never empty, even when distanced through distortion. This is perfect music for sweaty basement dancing, solo city cycling or making out in a car on the side of an empty mountain road.

Listen to most of the tracks at myspace.com/forestworld
or go ahead and get the hand-packaged cd at forestworldblog.blogspot.com (download is available as well)

orignally posted on dmlh.blogspot.com

Current Stencils by Thrashley Caustic

Thrashley Caustic has been working with political and personal themes through multi-layer stencil imagery. Her work tends to hold direct statements in bold colors or provide reflections of worlds we often choose to ignore. She is not so much creating visual art for the sake of making art, but rather as the most direct form of communicating her beliefs and response to the world. She is fresh off a nationwide tour, where she shared her work and put it up wherever she could, finally reaching the goal of getting to New York to hang paintings at the Anarchist Book Fair. You can check out more of her work at her blog: cutitoutcaustic.blogspot.com

Saudade at the Red Dragon

not THAT heavy....

Are You Alone Yet - Shermstixx Live with Start Fires at One34 on New Year's Eve

Date: December 31st, 2008
Location: One34 House in South East Portland, Oregon
Episode: 1 of (unknown)

MAJOR RAGER, BUDDY!

Saudade "best of 2008"

This image of record covers includes Saudade's "The Hooded Ones". Apparently the guy who blogs about music at "the Grotto of Miracles" found it more important than most other releases this year. It is interesting to note that he also lists Grouper's "Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill" who I saw play WITH Saudade at Rererato here in Portland last summer. Isn't it neat to find out that something you put out there can impact someone else in such a positive way?

***update: while writing this post i got an email from Jason Gray leading to another top ten list they made at The Party's Crashing Us

Nature Photos by Chickweed Monkeyflower

Our dear friend and compatriot Chickweed Monkeyflower takes a variety of photos, often of the natural world he tends to surround himself with. He is constantly posting new images, here are a few recent sights:

New T-Shirt by Ven Gist - Available Now

Ven Gist is a sick illustrator/designer who is currently based out of Florida (but we cant wait to see him back in Portland!). His style encompasses technical and loose linework, clean, strong fonts, and he loves some psychedelic colors. It has been a while since he has had a t-shirt design out, his last group of shirts were all handmade here in Portland, with all-over print patterns for Artikel Clothing, and prior to that he did some work for the Japanese apparel group G.U. This design is a clear commentary on the oil crisis and the possibility for other energy sources, with the windmills and sun above the crossed out oil drop. Pretty sweet. Check out Ven's design company Make Nice and if you want you can buy the shirt HERE.

New Songs from Saudade

Saudade is the musical collision of Weather Exposed Skeleton Music and Cantino. They take the listener on guided journey through their emotional and mental response to the world with songs that range between lush ambiance and ecstatic noise. Their live show is like watching a hurricane, from the calm water pulling away from shore to the trees hurtling through subdivisions. They have some new songs up on their blog, Shermstixx recommends "Early October". I am feeling the "Interstate Bridge Song", possibly because it uses elements i have heard glimpses of during their live sets mixed with field recordings taken around the bridge here in Portland, or because Cantino lets us enjoy his voice. While you are there you can download a copy of their full length release, "The Hooded Ones", fo free, and space out in their world for a while.

all the links above go direct to specific parts of their blog, or you can just go check it all out for yourself: www.saudadepdx.com

Mikael Kennedy's 'Odysseus' review

Mikael recently collected a body of work into the traveling show 'Odysseus', which recently opened in Chicago at the Studio 101 Gallery. This collection has just been reviewed at the American Suburb Blog, which apparently documents and reviews contemporary photography. CHECK IT OUT.