EtherBomb- Portland Oregon Indie Music Blog

Drone Machine…more like AWESOME machine.

rswelling — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:54:45 +0000

“This is a four oscillator synth with each oscillator controlled by a position on the joystick.”

Suzanne Ciani Paris 1971

rswelling — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 03:10:46 +0000

How cool was Suzanne Ciani back in the 70s! I just love the fat analog sound of the synths in this tune.

Paris 1971

Here she is demonstrating some synth patch cords to a young enthusiast. She took a turn for the worse down New Age lane, and is responsible for some rather awful new age music oh and uh cough cough Disco Star Wars (ok that MIGHT fall under awsome, hard to tell really)…but pre 1980 I pledge my love and allegiance to you nerdy synth Goddess.

Bad Assetts Live at The Safari Club in Estacada

rswelling — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 02:55:41 +0000

Well where to begin…I’d never been to Estacada, it’s a small town southeast of Portland. A quick look online at The Legendary Safari Club website confirmed it would probably be worth the drive down to see our good buds The Bad Assetts charm the locals with their pure country goodness. Seriously, those guys all have the requisite chops, great songwriting and are well seasoned vets here in the Portland scene. We arrived at the start of their second set and it was obvious things were not going well when an inebriated damsel pushed violently past us on her way out proclaiming this was the “worst country band EVER”. Upon entering we walked past a row of scowling patrons over to the stage area where we saw some friendlier faces. The BA’s ripped through their second set which had a few of us who made the long drive out and dancing. I heard later there was much disappointment among the Estacadians *NOT ALL ESTACADIANS ONLY THE ONES AT THE SAFARI CLUB THIS PARTICULAR EVENING* at this band for “playing their own songs”…apparently that kind of thing is unheard of, and now the Assetts are banned from The Safari Club. Ah well, the club itself is a damn interesting place founded by some ~~sick fuck game hunter~~ slightly misguided individual who felt it would be cool to share his love for the sport of killing animals with large weapons. Honestly if you’re looking for a fair fight and want to prove yourself in the wild against animals I am not totally against you…hell if you want to hunt a bear armed with a pocket knife I might even tune in to watch that reality tv show (not really I’m just posturing). So, that was a long time ago and the bar has changed hands a number of times, it’s been restored nicely and if you can put aside your general disgust for big game hunting it is really kind of impressive to see. If you are going to play there be sure to brush up on your Godsmack covers, maybe if a few more good original bands play there the locals will warm up to the concept that original music played by people who care can be fun. Here are a few shots from the club.

*EDIT Cindy from the Safari Club responded with a list of bands who played original music at The Safari Club (see comments)…so to the Bad Assetts, sorry guys I guess Estacada (THE REGULARS THAT HANG OUT AT THE SAFARI CLUB) just hate you in particular. I still love ya though.”

Bison Bison, American Friction, Lord Master. Live at the Kenton, Jan 12th 2012.

rswelling — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:45:43 +0000

The World Famous Kenton Club hosts a wide variety of music in North Portland. It’s about as DIY as it get’s, you contact booking set up a show via email and you are on your own. The advantages of this are they book a wide variety of music all the time, and allow up and coming bands a decent venue with a small scene built in. The shows are free and they pay you a percentage from the bar, which is the perfect formula really for this type of venue. This bill on Jan 12th was designed to bring together some of my favorite local heavyweights, and well…turn up the volume a bit on the bass.

Lord Master is one of the first bands I saw when I moved to PDX from Tucson. They are an amazing blend of humor and craftsmanship which you don’t see done successfully all that often. It had been a few yeas since I’d seen then so I was pleased to hear everything was still rolling. They ripped through a crowd pleasing set including my favorite “Pack of Wild Dogs”. Guitar Master Cosley had lopped off part of his finger earlier in the day, but it seemed to have no effect upon his mighty chops…you decide, but avoid falling into…

After a short equipment change and some PA adjustments (DIY means no sound guy people…which can often be a blessing. Don’t get me wrong…I love a good friendly sound guy) American Friction blasted out of the starting gate like honey badger fired from a bazooka. 3 songs in strings were broken, fingers were bleeding profusely, and cords were tangled everywhere. Typical Friction assault.

Rounding out the evening was local heavyweight Bison Bison. These guys may not be breaking new ground, but they have clearly spent years in headphones listening to 70′s hard rock. They pare down metal grooves and add a steely focus to the actual groove, the part that makes you nod your head, and get the lady parts bouncing. The amazing part of this is how heavy they are for only a three piece, a real testament to the overall musicianship of all three band members, as well as the time they invest in fine tuning their tone. Turn it up and shake it.

American Friction, PRND, and BisonBison live at Slims St. Johns. Portland Oregon

rswelling — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 19:16:57 +0000

Slim’s is a dive bar, and I mean that in the best possible way. It has character, and is usually filled with characters…and well they are St. Johns characters, which adds another layer to the overall funkiness. The stage is simply too narrow for a normal rock band to fit on in any sort of traditional drummer in the back set up. You arrange yourself in a row, and the “frontman” if you have one wil be playing out on the floor.

This was a rock show, and American Friction had the honor of initiating the crowd to the volume for the evening. Loud. There was plenty of dancing during the set and enthusiastic hoots from the gallery of Slim’s regulars. PRND is an interesting spacey rock band from Bellingham who employ a casio keyboard for their rhythm instead of a drummer…meaning they all actually fit on the stage. Their mere existence is testament to the bizarre and creative scene that exists in the secluded northern tip of of Washington. The night ended with a crushing performance from BisonBison (good video of their performance here) who are definitely the new local heros of St. Johns. The crowd was fired up by then, and exploded into a bouncing ball of sweaty, smelly fun, the perfect end to an energetic evening.

American Friction-

Cows Cows Cows…acid?

rswelling — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:11:10 +0000

I really need to lay off the acid man…

Demo Ape!

rswelling — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:43:27 +0000

I spent 20 years in the desert of Tucson Arizona. When I first moved there in 1987 it was a really exciting little music scene filled with a mixture of the local thriving punk scene, art kids from the college, and various ship-wrecked castaways like myself. There was an actual music scene…or a number of them even. Bands supporting each other, people supporting bands, house parties every weekend – all weekend. Yes, it actually was, in retrospect, really great and a lot of good music happened. Quite a bit of this music was actually archived thanks to the mighty cassette tape and the 4-track recorder. One of the great collectors (and of course guitarist in numerous bands at the time) Jason Willis has started digitalizing the cassette demos from that warm and fuzzy era. These demo tapes really capture the raw music and ingenuity of the Tucson music scene and should give you a good taste of what I’m talking about.

Demo Ape!

Love Lasers!

rswelling — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:04:29 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any updates on my personal music projects. We’ve been working on a new band with Lana Rebel called the Love Lasers. The spark for this project came about when Lana needed a stand-in band for a Laurelthirst gig because some of the Broken Promises were out of town. We enlisted the drum talent of Andy Bacon (long time Portland drummer who has played with just about everyone). We were just going to do a three piece, but then in walked the one and only Dan Lowenger who just happened to have his gear in the trunk of his car…you’re hired Lowenger! We had fun that night and Lana and Dan thought it would be fun to put together a more uptempo band as a side project. Well, a year later we are still rolling, picking up speed with 2nd and 4th Monday gigs at the Kenton Club. We play a list of old timey classic country, rockabilly and odd instrumentals. here is a link to a sort of website I set up with a current list of songs and upcoming gigs. We also have an offcial Facebook page with some video clips.

Burial – Forgive

rswelling — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:36:12 +0000

Wow this is a perfect combination of audio and visual…haunting and beautiful.

Barely Bipedal

rswelling — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:43:36 +0000

I just finished developing a website for a band Barely Bipedal (best band name ever right?) I was in many years ago in Tucson AZ. The band was a rather amazing conglomeration of misfits that resulted in some very interesting psychedelic, folk, whatever music. I have spent a month or so digitalizing the old 4-track recordings we made and have been posting them to the site. Check it out if you like creative somewhat low-fi music featuring some great songwriting. These recordings really capture that interesting time in Tucson AZ, an isolated island filled with post punk angst and a purifying heat that really tests one’s resolve.

The Official Barely Bipedal website (site is back up). Here is a BBP song if you’re too lazy to click on the link.

Barely Bipedal- Desert of Love