Introducing Butters

Respecting the results of this past week's poll, my bunny's name is Butters. Though the little guy has no yellow color to speak of, I'm happy with the final selection. Thank you all for your help, in particular some of the more amusing and creative names that were suggested, such as Clooney (my second fav choice), Hef (appropriate for a bunny), Frank (from Donnie Darko, creepy suggestion, but witty), and Lettuce (uhhhh....). I'm looking forward to introducing the new addition to you all in the coming weeks.

Tonight: Portland Music Awards

I am attending the 2nd annual Portland Music Awards tonight with fellow NW Noise Boy Jason Gears and Jeremy Reid, former lead singer of LA metal bands Ragged and Ruin. Many friends of Northwest Noise are up for awards tonight, including Debra Arlyn, Oh Darling, The Dimes, Derby, Tea For Julie, The Slants, Blind Pilot, and Alex Steininger. My good friend, Matt, whose musical tastes are far cooler than my own, sent me this article from the Willamette Week which pretty much sums up my feelings of tonight's event. However, I'm going in with an open mind and I'm sure to have a good time, regardless of the validity, or lack thereof, of these awards. At the very least, organizer Craig Marquardo must have spent a lot of time putting this event together in an attempt to recognize the area's best talent, and I have to respect him for that.

Name My Bunny

As many of you know, yesterday I adopted an adorable bunny rabbit. The little guy is only 8-9 weeks old, but is full of energy and incredibly friendly. He is a white and gray dwarf mix and he has a little bit of Lionhead in him (notice the long hair on the top of his head sticking up).

I've been struggling to think of the perfect name for my little guy and am coming to you all for help. Butters (from South Park) has been a popular response on Gchat today, but there's also been some Trailblazer related suggestions, such as Outlaw, but I also like the sound of Batum. Then there's the idea that based on his white and grey fur, I call him Clooney, which I really like, and Taylor Hicks, which is funny, but not what I would want to call a pet. Of course, Tim threw in a wild card with Ghostface Killa.

What are your thoughts? There's a poll to the right. Click on a box and help me out. Leave any comments below if you have additional suggestions.

Weekend Recap Jan. 23-25

It was a weekend full of excitement, complete with fire trucks and ambulances, which I will not get into here, but feel free to ask me about it through a different venue.

Instead I'll focus on the more 'artsy' aspects of my weekend, which began with a trip to the Portland Art Museum, my first trip to an art museum that did not involve going on a school field trip. My good friend, Miriam, an artist herself, joined me as we explored the wonderful world of artistic expression. I'll be honest, I don't get a lot of it. The museum hosts a lot of modern art, which to me is just bizarre. Take, for example, the burlap bags stuffed with who-knows-what, two to three dozen of them, arranged to look like a cluster of over sized potatoes. Or a block of marble sitting on the floor with uncooked rice around the base, appropriately titled "Marble and Rice." Then there was renowned British sculptor Rachel Whiteread, who had an entire exhibition at the museum. One of her pieces featured a old metal chair frame with half a dozen painted pizza boxes on the seat. Pizza boxes on a chair, people! A few of her other pieces included old toilet paper and paper towel rolls painted in pastel colors in various arrangements. I guess I'm just not that cultured.

However, once we got to the actual paintings, they were amazing. They have a Monet and a Van Gogh, both of which were very cool to see in person. My friend Johnny of The Dimes has also recently got me interested in the paintings of Childe Hassam, who has a few pieces in the museum, including 'Isle Of Shoals.' The Dimes recently wrote a song using the titles of Hassam's paintings, entitled 'Celia's Garden.' You can download a demo of the song here. I also loved the Asian and Renaissance art work and spent quite a bit of time admiring them. Overall a great experience. I will definitely need to include a trip to the MET when I visit NYC later this year.

I also went with a group of friends to check out Revolutionary Road. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect. I wasn't familiar with the book and knew nothing of the plot. I only knew that Leo and Kate were in it and getting rave reviews for their performances. Admittedly, I have been a fan of DiCaprio for awhile, ever since I saw him in Basketball Diaries, and his performance this time did not disappoint. Kate Winslet has already won a Golden Globe for her performance, but, and maybe it's just me, I detected a bit of overacting on her part. Not much, but enough for someone with some acting experience to pick up on. As far as the story itself, it was just depressing. Think of American Beauty set in the 50's, the ideal of the perfect suburban life falling apart at the seams. But I never felt attached to the characters to really feel sympathy for them. It wasn't a bad movie by any means, but I can't say it is a must see.

Heading to the movies did encourage me to see more. I've been so reluctant to see anything since movies now cost over $10 a ticket. Lately, I've been reserving my movie watching to $3 tickets at McMennamins. That may have to change though. Any suggestions on what to watch next? I'm hearing Slumdog Millionaire.

New Year's 2009

Full disclosure: I'm stealing this post from my friend, Ryan, who I spent New Year's Eve with, amongst others. Ryan is one half of Pet Marmoset, an entity that manages two exceptional Portland bands: The Dimes and Derby. He is also an active blogger (and Twitter-er, and is trying to push me into signing up for Twitter, but my will is strong...) and his blog about music and the industry is one of my favorite reads, which is why I'm stealing his post to describe my own New Year's. On his site, Ryan discusses new ideas about marketing music at length and has some really great articles and opinions. The other half of Pet Marmoset, Joe, also writes for the blog. You can check out their thoughts here or click the link in the right column.

As far as my own experience for an exceptional night of music and ringing in 2009, I was very fortunate to run into the Marmoset boys that night as, while I was lucky enough to get into the venue that night, the rest of my not-so-punctual crew was not able to sweet talk their way into the sold out concert. In what could of been a ho-hum New Year's, I got the opportunity to enjoy an incredible music experience, take in some good drinks (the Jubelale flowed liked wine...), and meet some new people (the women instinctively flocked to the show like the salmon of Capistrano...) Oh Bree, our time together was too short...

Ryan's post follows, but you will have to go to his site to check out pictures and video of the night here. His story regarding James Mercer of The Shins from that night is classic. I thought he was almost gonna have to throw down.

"Fully realizing we’re two weeks into the new year, we’ve finally found some time to upload some photos and share what a wonderful night Team Marmoset encountered on December 31st, 2008. Better late than never, right? It was definitely one of those rare, yet classic Portland music experiences, where there was just a special vibe in the air that you simply cannot find anywhere else in the world. We were at the Laurelthirst Public House on NE Glisan for a special night of P-town music…

Who was there? Who wasn’t there is a better question. Along with all of Team Marmoset and our better halves, we joined forces with Northwest Noise, which made it plenty fun. The night was billed as Two Beers Veirs - rumor has it that Laura Veirs can only drink two beers before she has to pee. lol

The “house band” for the night was none other than Chris Funk, Nate Query, Jenny Conlee, John Moen (all of the Decemberists), plus Annalisa Tournfelt of The Builders and The Butchers, and Jon Neufeld of Jackstraw. Not a bad house band, huh? But it doesn’t stop there. Here’s who joined them on stage…one by one, each leading about five or six songs before inviting the next artist to the stage - for what seemed like the world’s greatest little blue grass folk rock jam of all time:

John McDonald (King Wilkie) and Annalisa Tournfelt (The Builders and The Butchers)
Casey Neil
Ashleigh Flynn
Little Sue
Kevin and Anita Robinson (Viva Voce/Blue Giant)
John “Spider” Moen (Decemberists)
Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, R.E.M.)
Laura Veirs

…and not performing, but there with the rest of us to take it all in included the likes of James Mercer of The Shins and at least one or two of the other Shins guys and Colin Meloy.

As a side note, I will say that I had to keep my eye on James Mercer throughout the night… The first time or two I caught him checking out my wife, Jeana, from afar, I really didn’t think much of it. But then he kept on and I swear, I caught him pointing her out to a friend of his. I thought to myself, “fair enough - Jeana’s a hot girl.” And then towards the end of the night, I heard him say to her, “you’re too cute” and then he complimented her on her clogging as she danced across the room. Hmmm…. I thought to myself, “what is this guy up to?”

However, in all honesty - Mercer was simply enjoying himself and enjoying the fun, festive atmosphere like the rest of us. While it gave me some good material for my Twitter feed, I’m sure he meant no harm. Again - what a fun night. Note to self: One hard cider is good. Two hard ciders is plenty. Three hard ciders is too much!

Happy New Years, y’all."

Justin Royce's Uber Pretentious Top 5 Indie Albums of 2008 List - #1

#1: Oh Darling Nice Nice

It should come as no surprise to anyone who I have discussed music with in any capacity last year that Oh Darling's Nice Nice would be my favorite album 0f 2008. I was originally drawn in by singer Jasmine Ash's vocals and the bouncy pop/rock of such tracks as "Electrocute" and "Against The Skyline" and the slower "Blindspot" which remains my favorite track on the album. More recently, I have been digging the songs found later in the album, in particular the Triple-Oh trilogy of the dream-like "Only Beginnings," "The Ocean," and "One And The Same" that close out the album. Rhythm section J. Marie on bass and Shane on drums (who is no longer in the band, replaced by the oh-so-enthusiastic showman Jake) keep you dancing throughout, guitarist Davey adds textures that add greatly to the surreal mood of the music while Jasmine's vocals bounce around, giving the band their original sound. Since June of last year, Nice Nice has been on regular rotation in my home and my car and continues to be. It is just about a perfect album, my one complaint being it is too short at 32 minutes, but that just leaves me wanting more. The Darlings recently left Portland to share their brand of music with a wider audience in Los Angeles. I wish them all the best and I am very excited to see what this great group of musicians accomplishes.

Justin Royce's Uber Pretentious Top 5 Indie Albums of 2008 List - #2

#2: The Heavenly States Delayer

Yeah, they're from the Bay Area and not technically a Northwest band. But they spend enough time up here for me to give them a pass. That, and their record kicks ass. Delayer opens with a flurry of keys and Ted shouting "It hurts so bad this goes on the record" on "Morning Exercise" and continuing to the exceptional "Lost In The Light." The band slows things down in the middle on tracks "Sun Chase Moon," "Butterflies," and "Roses" before giving kicking things back up on my favorite track "Pretty Life" and then taking a completely unexpected turn on the country-esque "Never Be Alright." Genevieve keeps things interesting on the keys and adds her violin skills throughout, Jeremy and Masanori hold down the rhythm section and guitarist/vocalist Ted may just be the funniest guy in indie music. Delayer is highly recommended.