Just finished a recording session for East Forest’s upcoming album, “Love Bomb.” I layered violin on top of viola, string quartet style (minus the cello), a technique I rarely do.
Here’s a two-minute video Trevor took of me f**king around:
Below is my contribution to “Only On The Bus,” the October 2011 column for Michael Andersen’s magazine Portland Afoot. You can learn more about or join Portland Afoot at portlandafoot.
I published a freelance piece in the Sept. 11 East Side edition of Michael Andersen’s groundbreaking “10-minute newsmagazine” Portland Afoot. Check out the full edition and much more at portlandafoot.
Here’s the clip:
Portland State University Vanguard (3/1/11)
Almost more Radiohead than Radiohead
Leaves Russell releases debut album, raises local bar
Like black metal, grind and pretty much all electronic music, Portland has this unspoken ratio in play: For every good band, there are approximately 300 bad ones. Everyone in Portland thinks they’re in a good band. That said, for some strange reason, our town’s venues are clogged with bands that are just plain no good. With Portland’s nepotistic nature, spots in our now waning venue population are hotly contested. More often than not, smaller venues are packed to the gills with bands nobody really wants to see. But quietly, in the shadows, relative unknowns are doing some amazing things. Enter: Leaves Russell.
On Feb. 4, Leaves Russell released its first piece of music, “Tale of Two Basements.” A very promising release, ToTB may have performed the impossible: raising the bar of Portland’s stalwart music scene—and nobody out there knows it yet. On the flipside; at five tracks, does ToTB have the mass necessary to make a real impact on Portland’s sonic landscape?
In the shortest terms possible: it should. More honesty drips from this record than most albums released by Portlanders in the last few years. Listeners will call it like it is on this record. Leaves Russell are, in no uncertain terms, a more pop-oriented Radiohead with some R&B hooks scattered throughout.
And really, that’s fine. Songs like “Paperthin” really exemplify this comparison. Frontman Matthew Russell sounds like Thom Yorke might, if Yorke weren’t howling into a microphone drenched with compression, reverb and echo. It is this sense of stripped-down honesty that characterizes ToTB. Sparse but lush instrumentals cover the terrain of the record, which are only augmented by Russell’s crooning.
When the instruments drop out, Russell’s voice is naked and wavering, which only reinforces the idea that this record seems to conjure up again and again: Four guys got together and recorded a very real album, more out of passion than menial chore. Lots of records released in this city traverse every path BUT honesty, and sad to say, the façade quickly wears thin.
Every member contributes something to the band, which is more than can be said for quite a few bands these days. The lovely piano work is added by Russell himself, and its interplay with strings player Thacher Schmid’s violin on songs like “La Zona Rosa” is pared down and devoid of any pompous frills—quite the welcome change from early 2011′s (and late 2010′s) glut of dense tedium.
The rhythm section, comprised of bassist Isaac Medina and percussionist Jackson Conrad, is about as tight as any band could hope for. The closing minute or so of the album’s opening track, “Heart of Things,” is a perfect example. In what appears to be a short interlude at the end, the band interplays brilliantly with one another with gorgeous tones all around, especially those from Medina.
Of course, no album is without its flaws, and thankfully, this record keeps them to a minimum. Some of the songs could stand to be tightened up a bit. Some songs, such as “Paperthin” have a couple sparse transitions that drag down the mood of the song a bit. The transitions between tracks aren’t as smooth as they could be, but I think this hints at the album’s chief problem: the track order.
The record as a whole is exceptional. The order in which they choose to present it, however, is a little slipshod. The album’s pathway is a rocky one mood-wise, when a record of this caliber and emotive content could benefit from a much smoother ride. Personally, I’d order the tracks two, four, one, three and five for maximum enjoyment. But when your record’s biggest problem is the track order, I’d say you’re doing just fine. ■
Portland Mercury (3/16/11)
SUNDAY 3/20
LEAVES RUSSELL, NICOLE BERKE, DKOTA
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) Available tonight, Tale of Two Basements is the new five-song offering from local quartet Leaves Russell. The Russell boys are technically gifted nearly to a fault, creating songs loaded down with grandiose instrumentation (so much violin!) and a slightly disjointed structure. While opener “Heart of Things” doesn’t skimp on the melodrama, the band sounds more comfortable on precise rock numbers like “Paperthin.” And the less said about weepy ballad “La Zona Rosa” the better. While it’s clear that Leaves Russell’s intentions are in the right place, Basements struggles mightily to progress through its overly ambitious song structure, proof that sometimes the simplest of ideas work the best. EAC
Oregon Music News (2/13/11)
“Leaves Russell releases new EP”
Leaves Russell, the melodramatic, Portland, rock four-piece, has a new, five-track EP, Tale of Two Basements, now available for stream and purchase on Bandcamp–pssst, it was engineered at New North Sound, the same downtown space where The Kingsmen put “Louie, Louie” to tape. The cooing, EP-opener “Heart of Things” starts with an off-kilter 31Knots-esque beginning and ends with a stark duel between piano and strings–their recordings feature viola, violin and electric mandolin.
These additions add something more morosely Brit-rock than poppy, Portland indie rock to Leaves Russell’s sound, as vividly heard on track two, “Paperthin,” with the not-quite-soul-wrenching yet emotively anthemic chant of “Turn yourself in” alongside the bona fide power of balladeering that comes with building a six-and-half-minute song:
The fourth cut, “NaNaNa,” begs for a loose sing-along while the guitar sings its own solo. The band says, “We don’t want anyone to die because they don’t have great music, so we’re offering the songs for free or barter to anyone that emails hearleavesrussell@gmail.com.” Leaves Russell’s next live shows in Portland are scheduled for March.
Sellwood Bee (3/2/11)
Inner Southeast band releases locally-recorded EP
The band “Leaves Russell”, whose violin/viola/mandocaster player lives in Westmoreland, has recorded a five-track EP in two basements, one of which is in Brooklyn. Naturally, the name of the CD is “Tale of Two Basements”. The band last performed at the White Eagle Saloon in Portland on February 11, and there will be a CD release event at Mississippi Studios in Portland on March 20, with “more shows planned”.
In February 2011, Leaves Russell released its debut EP, “A Tale of Two Basements.” The cover art was done by Jeremy Moore and looks like this:
The album is available for digital download at
leavesrussell.bandcamp.com for a very reasonable $5.
The five songs on the album are:
5 Replace the Light (Upon the Stand)
I played violin, viola and Fender mandocaster, and sang backup vox. Matthew Russell sang lead and played piano, Isaac Medina played bass and Jackson Conrad played drums.
The album was engineered and mixed by Brandon Jiaconia and Noah Woodburn at New North Sound, and mastered by Carl Saff. We were the last band to record at New North during the brief time it was located in the funky downtown Portland space that used to be a gay bathhouse, and where long ago the Kingsmen recorded the legendary song “Louie, Louie.”
Here’s what Oregon Music News had to say about it:
Leaves Russell, the melodramatic, Portland, rock four-piece, has a new, five-track EP, Tale of Two Basements, now available for stream and purchase on Bandcamp–pssst, it was engineered at New North Sound, the same downtown space where The Kingsmen put “Louie, Louie” to tape. The cooing, EP-opener “Heart of Things” starts with an off-kilter 31Knots-esque beginning and ends with a stark duel between piano and strings–their recordings feature viola, violin and electric mandolin.
These additions add something more morosely Brit-rock than poppy, Portland indie rock to Leaves Russell’s sound, as vividly heard on track two, “Paperthin,” with the not-quite-soul-wrenching yet emotively anthemic chant of “Turn yourself in” alongside the bona fide power of balladeering that comes with building a six-and-half-minute song:
The fourth cut, “NaNaNa,” begs for a loose sing-along while the guitar sings its own solo. The band says, “We don’t want anyone to die because they don’t have great music, so we’re offering the songs for free or barter to anyone that emails hearleavesrussell@gmail.com.” Leaves Russell’s next live shows in Portland are scheduled for March.
Here is the first big story I ever wrote for publication: a cover story for Milwaukee, WI alternative newsweekly the Shepherd Express. It came on the heels of my internship at the Feminist Majority Foundation in Washington, D.C., where I met Penny Harrington, the former police chief of Portland, OR and the first female chief of a major city.
Click on the page and hit Command [+} to enlarge and read.
After a great show at the Doug Fir Lounge on January 22, 2011, Petoskey is releasing its new EP, titled “Little Lakes.”
Recorded by Skyler Norwood at Miracle Lake Studios in Camas, WA, the EP includes five songs, including Baby Bee, Chickadee, Jacob and the Whale, Artichoke and 1627 Leffingwell.
Petoskey is Angie Kuzma (center), Justin Ready (far right), Becca Vandewalle (back right), Jason Drost (mid right), Lauren Vidal (back left), and Thacher Schmid (far left).
You can buy this excellent recording for just five bucks here:
http://petoskey-pdx.bandcamp.com/
If you’d like a sneak peek, here are two of the three songs I played on from the album:
Signs Of Discontent
Billboard wordplay has caught the Blazers off guard and angered some feminists.
BY THACHER SCHMID | 503-243-2122
[December 8th, 2010]
AD MEN: Neil Patrick Harris and Charlie Sheen oversee this corner of Northeast Portland. IMAGE: Taylor Schefstrom
It takes a second glance to realize that some billboards in the city that’s home to the Trail Blazers aren’t a typo.
The capital letters, several feet tall and a dozen wide, spell the words “TAIL BLAZERS” and are nestled between the faces of actors Charlie Sheen and Neil Patrick Harris. They’re plastered on at least three billboards and one MAX light-rail train as part of a NW32/KRCW ad campaign to pitch two TV series, Sheen’s Two and a Half Men and Harris’ How I Met Your Mother, just as the Trail Blazers’ basketball season started in October.
Both shows appear in syndication and share womanizing as a leitmotif. But the ads have sparked controversy.
In early November, the Oregon Women Lawyers email listserv erupted in a flurry of emails about the ads, calling them “demeaning,” “scary” and “genuinely offensive.”
And other residents of a city known nationally for its child sex-trafficking problem and myriad strip clubs are objecting, too, beyond the quibbles from some of the lawyers group’s 1,500 members.
“They’re horrible, horrible,” said Jennifer Faust, 42, squinting at the Tail Blazers billboard above the Lucky Devil strip club on Southeast Powell Boulevard. “It’s like, why? Why do we promote this?”
“It’s cowardice, actually, and very discriminatory and prejudiced,” said William Bierbrauer, a 57-year-old Blazers fan who proudly recalls the team’s 1977 championship season.
A Trail Blazers spokeswoman distanced the team from the ads.
“We are aware of the sign and it is apparent that they are looking to leverage our brand to promote their programming,” spokeswoman Alissa Moore wrote in an email. “We don’t care for the message as it is not aligned with how we look to conduct ourselves.”
It’s an especially sensitive topic for the Blazers, still struggling to live down the “Jail Blazers” era, when Zach Randolph, Damon Stoudamire and Qyntel Woods had run-ins with the law and Ruben Patterson was required to register as a sex offender after he pleaded guilty to the attempted rape of his children’s nanny.
NW32’s owner, the Chicago-based Tribune Company, did not respond to a request for comment.
Charlie Sheen’s agent, Stan Rosenfield, also declined comment about the timing of the ads, after recent allegations by a porn actress that Sheen assaulted her, as well as Sheen’s guilty plea in August to charges of assaulting his wife last Christmas.
The recent discussion on the OWLlistserv was intense and intellectual, ranging to such far-flung topics as traditional Muslim hijab dress and the Junior Blazers Dancers.
OWL members who responded to a Nov. 28 posting with this reporter’s name and telephone number had diverse takes on the controversy. Not all were offended by the billboards.
“I wasn’t offended by it at all, and actually, it seemed outrageous how big of a deal it was made out to be,” said Alana Iturbide, 25, a Lewis & Clark law student. “It was pretty one-sided, people felt it was demeaning to women, etcetera. Everyone is entitled to put up billboards and have free speech, essentially.”
FACT: “ Tail Blazers” is also the name of a Portland group of dog lovers—mostly women—who get together to play a game called flyball, in which dogs navigate obstacles to retrieve balls. Co-founder and certified dog trainer Greta Kaplan wrote to say that her teammates found the billboards “crass.”
I just did a podcast with Trevor Oswalt, a keyboardist, producer and vocalist who maintains the Eastforest.org website. It’s titled “Uncoiling,” and clocks in at 16 minutes.
Great stuff for meditation, driving, relaxing, taking a bath, chillaxing. I played violin and Fender mandocaster on the piece. Trevor played keyboards, sang and added various effects and other percussion instruments, with loop pedals. You can go to eastforest.org or to the audio link:
http://www.losttricks.com/eastforest/SoundHealingBites/Podcasts/SoundHealingBites025Uncoiling.mp3
Leaves Russell at the Someday Lounge, 9 p.m. June 22, 2010. $5.
