Debra Arlyn Returns To Jimmy Maks

In about an hour and a half, Debra Arlyn will be performing at Jimmy Maks in the Pearl, recognized as one of the world's top 100 places to hear jazz. It's Ms. Arlyn's 24th birthday and it's sure to be a great time, featuring birthday cake for all! Paul Creighton of Intervision will join Debra for a song or two and Vicci Martinez and the Jacob Merlin Band will continue the evening with their own sets as well. The NW Noise boys will also be there, of course, to support our good friend on her special day. If you haven't yet checked out a concert from this amazing Oregon songstress, tonight is an excellent opportunity to do so. Show starts at 8PM.

Who Just Scored An Exclusive Interview With Starf***er?

I did (well, as a representive of Northwest Noise I did). I'm very excited. More to come...

Portland Music Awards

Over the past couple of weeks, many people have asked what I thought of this year's PMAs. I myself wonder what others thought of the awards. A recent Google search yielded mostly results discussing last year's inaugural ceremony. This year's show seems to have gone largely unnoticed by the local press. Not surprising since the media tore this thing apart a year ago. Even Northwest Noise was critical of the event. I'm amazed that organizer Craig Marquardo was willing to do the whole thing over again.

I wasn't sure what to expect when arriving to the event at the Crystal Ballroom with fellow NW Noise Boy Jason Gears and Jeremy, high school friend and former lead singer of L.A. metal bands Ruin and Ragged. There were certainly a lot of lavishly dressed individuals and lots of 'red carpet' interviews as I waited to get my tickets. Surely last year's negative press had not turned off everyone to the idea of the show. In fact, everyone seemed to be having a really good time.

The evening opened with the March Fourth Marching Band, arriving on stage with colorful costumes, baton twirling, and guys on stilts, an impressive opening for any show. Tea For Julie played "And Winter Comes" from their album The Sense In Tying Knots, one of my favorite indie albums of 2008. Good friend Debra Arlyn, winner of last year's PMA for "Best Female Artist," played twice. Floater, who I hadn't seen live in years, rocked the crowd. And deserving winner of the Pioneer Award, Mel Brown, was joined on stage by Ben Darwish for a jazzy number (I just received a copy of Ben Darwish's new album in the mail and I'm looking forward to checking it out).

Host Chloe Houser from PDX TV could do just about anything and look good doing it, while co-host Auggie Smith played awkward comedian presenter perfectly (not sure if that was intentional or not, however, Auggie did have a couple of funny bits). Plenty of local celebrities made appearances as presenters during the evening, including KATU's Dave Anderson falling off of the stage, Kelsey Grammer-style.

And now, to the bad of the evening...

First, the voting process was incredibly ill-advised. Individuals were allowed to vote up to 5 times per IP address for their favorite nominees in a variety of categories. It seems to me that this would skew the results towards fans of bands that had nothing better to do with their days then vote multiple times. I regularly use 3 different IP addresses myself, giving me 15 votes without even trying. Nevermind me being able to use my roommates' computers, another office computer, the computer at the library, going into a Starbucks and logging in there. If I wanted to, I very easily could pick all the winners myself with just my votes. Doesn't seem like the best way to do things. And I don't want to specifically attack any particular band here, but some of the night's winners simply do not represent the best of Portland.

Second, some of the awards seem very unnecessary. After KINK won the PMA for "Best Radio Station," my friend Jeremy leaned over and said to me "I'm pretty sure a radio station just won an award for playing music." And I'm not really sure how a PMA for "Best Performance By A National Touring Act" is supposed to represent the best of PDX. As much as I love the winner, Ben Harper, does this award really mean anything to him? Or Portland?

Finally, there's the evening's organizer, Craig Marquardo. I haven't met the guy, so I'm not going to attack him or his alleged shady past. However, his need to address the negative press he receives while on stage for an event that is supposed to celebrate local music was very uncomfortable. This simply was not the venue to express his frustration. It was awkward and inappropriate. Should Mr. Marquardo choose to do this ceremony again next year, I sincerely hope that he makes his defense using another venue, leaving the award show as an evening to honor Portland music.

If you didn't make it to the show (and a lot of you didn't because there were a lot of empty seats), you can check out the event at Comcast OnDemand starting February 16th. I encourage those of you who have the time to watch to do so with an open mind and make your own opinion.

New Tracks, No Cost

In the past few weeks, a few of my favorite artists have released new music via the interwebs, all at no cost. Score!

Little has been heard from Pete Yorn in the past couple of years, since the release of Nightcrawler, but there's a ton of material on deck coming out this year. PY recorded a few songs down in Salem, OR with Frank Black of The Pixies for an EP to be released later this year, in addition to a full-length album's worth of tracks he recorded with Mike Mogis in Omaha, also out later this year. You can download a track from each at the Fuel/Friends blog here.

Speaking of artists that have been MIA, it looks as if Howie Day is finally putting a new album out this year, his first since 2003's Stop All The World Now. Of course, there's been concerning bits and pieces about his world that have come to light over the past few years: the disturbance on an airplane, trapping two girls on his tour bus, dating Britney Spears. That, and the quality of his music had certainly suffered, as evidenced by the album Live From... Ever since "Collide" became a huge hit, Howie seems to have gone downhill. But he may be ready to come roaring back, if the song he released this past weekend is any indication. If you sign up for Howie's mailing list, you can get a free download of "Counting On Me," a track that I am digging on so far. Sign up here.

If you sign up for Hyundai's email list here, you can get a free download of the new Smashing Pupkins track "FOL" (this follows their last single "G.L.O.W." leading me to believe the Pumpkins are just naming their new songs after their leftover Scrabble letters or random words found in their Alpha Bits cereal). Billy Corgan stated late last year that the Pumpkins would no longer release full albums and would instead release singles through different venues, "FOL" debuting on a Hyundai commercial during the Superbowl, "G.L.O.W." on Guitar Hero: World Tour, and the previous "Superchrist" through a guitar magazine compilation album. It will be interesting to see where Billy and Co. decide to take this new philosophy on releasing music (kudos to them for embracing new avenues, I think we will soon find that the album concept will be dead and gone in a few short years).

Finally, a band that I used to love, but have kinda moved past, Dashboard Confessional, released a new song for download via MySpace. In any case, if you were a fan at some point or even mildly curious, you can pick up the new track at www.myspace.com/dashboardconfessional.

Happy President's Day, all. Hope most of you are enjoying a day off.

Blind Pilot on Last Call

If you were as busy as I was this week (or you don't stay up past 1:30AM on weekdays), you may have missed Portland's own, and NW Noise favorite, Blind Pilot on Last Call With Carson Daly. Blind Pilot has been on quite a roll the last few months, featured as iTunes' "Single of the Week" and Starbucks' "Pick of the Week," as well as making it to my own list of Top Albums of 2008. Check out Israel, Ryan, and friends performing "One Red Thread" in the above video.

Blind Pilot plays two shows at the newly reopened Mississippi Studios on March 5.

Star Star

At last night's Valentine's Day show, Starf***er certainly exceeded my expectations. Playing to a sold out crowd at the Wonder Ballroom (an impressive feat as the Ballroom fits nearly 800 people), the group had all of them dancing, including myself. The band got an intense dance workout as well as they grooved to the music with as much energy as the audience. They also must have exhausted themselves with the multiple instrument changes; at one point, there were three drummers going at the same time. Starf***er incorporated keyboards and synth, DJ scratching, and a wealth of electronic equipment that I'm not even familiar with.

Despite the lack of an encore and an extraordinary number of under-age audience members (yes, it weirds me out to think that I enjoy the same music as people half my age, though perhaps I should be encouraged that Miley Cyrus and High School Musical haven't completely taken that demographic), it was easy to see why Starf***er is considered one of the best live acts in the Portland music scene.

The band closed the evening with a cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun." For your listening pleasure, here is the studio recording of that song, courtesy of the gang at Buffet Libre.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

St. Valentine's Day

Well, it's Valentine's Day, and if you haven't already made plans to take your special someone out tonight, you may be out of luck... but hopefully not.

I was originally hoping to make my way to the Someday Lounge for the Cover Your Hearts show, featuring many local bands, such as Charmparticles, Climber, Crosstide, Derby, Jonah, Tango Alpha Tango, and Tea For Julie, playing covers of 80s power ballads, perfect for the occasion. Sadly, this show is sold out and Craigslist ended up a bust for me as well. No guest list either, so I could not work my charm and connections to get in the door. Bummer. If you are one of the lucky ones to have tickets, I beg you to consider giving them to me. However, if I can't convince you of that, enjoy the show. It's sure to be a good one.

Instead, my Valentine's dates and I will head to the Wonder Ballroom for a special show with Starf***er. Now I am usually not a fan of bands that include an F-bomb in their band name: F*** Buttons, Holy F***, and of course, the short and simple F***. Starf***er was off of my radar for awhile due to their name. Then I heard the music. It's so good, they can call themselves whatever they want. Perfect indie pop. It should be a great night of music, if the ladies this evening can get over the band name themselves. Strength, Explode Into Colors, and Dirty Mittens are also playing. I'm not familiar with any of those bands, but hoping they can make a fan out of me tonight. And I'm praying I have more luck with these tickets than I did for Cover Your Hearts. Show starts at 8pm and tickets are only $10. Hope to see some of you at the show. And happy Valentine's Day to you all. Especially you :)

Speaking of the Grammys...

Those of you watching last night's award ceremony may have seen Lincoln's "Music Video Challenge - Project Rising Stars" commercial. Readers of this blog and NW Noise may recognize the music of my good friends Ted, Genevieve, Jeremy, and Masonori, better known as The Heavenly States. Needless to say, I got very excited when I heard "The Race" from Delayer playing on a network prime time commercial.

You can check out the commercial yourself here and while you're at it, give The Heavenly States your vote for one of their two featured commercials.

Grammy Thoughts

Jay-Z, Kanye, Lil Wayne, T Pain, and MIA = Cool.

Coldplay and Jay-Z = Even Cooler.

Radiohead with the USC Marching Band = Cooler Still.

Paul McCartney with Dave Grohl on drums = Very Cool.

Neil Diamond = Nostalgic Cool.

But someone please tell me why you would ruin the evening by having Katy Perry perform?

Favorite Free Album Of The Week: Jaydiohead

I received a couple tracks via email of a mash-up project mixing Jay-Z and Radiohead. I dug the music so much, a combination of one of my fav rappers with one of my fav bands, that I went online to find out more about the artist behind the tracks. To my surprise, there was a whole album worth of music available for free on the interwebs. The artist behind the music goes by Minty Fresh Beats and you can find the album here.

Mash-ups can be an iffy thing. When Napster first came out, I downloaded a whole bunch of tracks, which I thought were cool at the time, but upon further listen, sounded like crap. Then Danger Mouse came out and combined Jay-Z's Black Album with The Beatles White Album and raised the bar for mash-ups forever. The Jigga Man has certainly had more than his fair share of mash-up treatments and even released his own authorized mash-up album with Linkin Park.

Jaydiohead certainly holds its own. "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" mashed with "Paranoid Android"? Check. "Karma Police" with "No Hook"? Nailed it. And the most unusual: "Never Change" combined with the virtually unknown "Gagging Order," a Radiohead song featuring only Thom Yorke's vocals and an acoustic guitar, available only on a limited release Japanese EP. If you are into Hova, or even Radiohead, you have to check this out.

And also worth mentioning, I finally downloaded The Decemberists Always The Bridesmaid singles. The songs on these A/B-side singles didn't fit quite right on their new album coming out later this year, but The Decemeberists still thought were worth getting out there. And the music is sweet. Not earth-shattering material by any means, but enough to get the fans, including myself, excited for the new CD. However, in what could be nothing more than a coincidence that I am making up in my head, one of the B-sides is a track entitled "O New England." Hmmm, what other Portland-area musicians has been writing songs about that ol' Boston area? Could it be none other than local favorites, The Dimes? Why yes it could! You can download a whole bunch of demos featuring the people, places, and history of New England at The Dimes blog here. I don't want to suggest anything, but I have seen members of The Decemberists in the audience at Dimes concerts, so you can make your own conclusions. :)

Happy Birthday Petey!

I miss you so much, lil guy.