"(Darkroom) play the kind of well-orchestrated music that sounds big and bold, where you want to tell the world "this is my band" and head to every show you can afford. I am very impressed by the songwriting, and combined with their music, Darkroom are a group that should rightfully be in the pop and rock spotlight."
- musicforamerica.org
Kyle Wallen was playing down at Skinless Productions Gallery and I wanted to make sure to stop in and enjoy. Kyle never fails to disappoint and, I swear, keeps getting better and better. Don't believe me? The links up there...^
To cut to the chase, Darkroom (Facebook | Virb) was in from Winona Lake, Indiana. Luke approached me early in the evening asking about the stage setup (how many inputs? what kind of cabling? etc.). We ironed out the details and the rest went like clockwork.
As you can tell from the video, they had the same "Weinland effect."
I go down and help out with the gallery from time to time. Basically, if I'm in town, I'm there. I don't check too much into who is going to play ahead of time. This makes it fun for me. There's such a variety of talent that graces that tiny, intimate stage and I'm not genre picky. As you've seen from these other posts, I enjoy a lot of the people I meet there and really enjoy the music. Darkroom was no exception.
Good luck to you guys and thank you for the enjoyable set.
"If Matt Arbogast's debut as the Gunshy wasn't enough to catapult him into the storytelling ranks of Destroyer's Dan Bejar and Silver Jews' David Berman -- those kings of self-referential literariness -- his sophomore LP, Souls, will." -Julia Simon, Spin Magazine Staff
I met Matt Arbogast in October of 2004. I remember because it was a few days before my Grandfather passed. My roommate and I headed down to see some friends of friends' band play and the Gunshy (myspace) was opening.
Every once in a while you see someone who is so good live you forget there's not a full band behind them. You forget that there's a beer in front of you. You forget to breathe. The Gunshy (this particular time: Matt by himself) managed to deliver one of these evenings to me.
I didn't realize I enjoyed the music as much as I did until I noticed that I wasn't breathing while he was playing. His lyrics were so powerfully descriptive while remaining humble. His chordal structure kept me wanting more. This was his "No Man's Blues" tour. I fell in love with the music immediately.
Near the end of the show, Matt asked if there was a floor or couch available to him for the evening. My roommate and I offered to have him crash with us as I bought as much of his stuff as my cash flow would allow.
We treated Matt to a frozen burrito and let him crash on one of the three couches in the living room. It wasn't much, but he was kind enough to trade with stories from the road. We had a pleasant evening passing around tales and sharing some laughs.
In the morning, we left for class and work and Matt had moved on when we returned. I still have the note he left thanking us for our hospitality. If I had a scanner, I'd put it up.
The point of all of this is that he is back on the road again for a long tour. Like he frequently does. There have been albums released since then. You should all go see him perform. It's a fantastic experience.
"From the Central Californian town of Merced comes El Olio Wolof, invoking majestic kingdoms where Shel Silverstein's brand of playful poetics meets the ebb and flow of dusky indie rock." - El Olio Wolof
Zac messaged me to see if I would be around to run sound on the 3rd of July. So I looked up who was playing on myspace and realized why the inquiry was sent. This was not your average band.
El Olio Wolof's sound instantly hit me with a full wave of accordions, keys, vocals, flutes, and more. I try not to make a rambling review on any of these postings (the point being to check out the band for what it does: music), but there's a bit of a back story:
You see, El Olio Wolof had the 4th off. The 5th was at the 400 in Minneapolis and they were debating their next move. I was given a copy of their latest album after the show by Brian (their killer accordionist) for running sound. I said my goodbyes, farewells, and thank yous as I left with their amazing album "A Tedious Task" in my pocket. Guilt sets in when there's a band worthy of supporting and you just don't have any money to help out.
The next evening was Skinless' "America Fu@$ Yeah" 4th of July, First Friday extravaganza. There were three bands booked for the evening. I called to see what time everything was starting up and to my suprise, El Olio Wolof had decided to spend the 4th of July with us in Kansas City and play an impromptu second set.
I stopped by the ATM, pulled out some cash, swung down to the gallery, changed one or two things with the mics, and voila: an even better show than the evening before(I know, it doesn't seem possible). After their performance, I passed along enough money to buy them a couple of gallons of gas (might have gotten them out of the city). We talked over a couple of smokes while I learned about the city of Merced and it's Hmong population.
After working the rest of the evening (more on this to come in a future post!), I once again bid adieu to the band. Upon shaking RC's hand he summed up their stay with the following (and I quote loosely):
"We meet wonderful people on the road all of the time; never to see them again. I hope we see each other again someday."
With that, I was off. Point empathized. And a fitting way to end this tale.
What does any of this have to do with the music? I don't know. But you will listen...and you will enjoy.
"Their new album is entitled A Tedious Task, ironic when thought of in context to the act of listening to their music, which feels anything but tedious. It feels quite like the perfect use of time. Their songs weave stories as complex as fairy tale spells and as simple as apple trees growing from seed." - the Bay Bridged
"Immediately the first song I heard took over my ears as nothing had in a long time. Who would have thought a song about a fire-breathing dragon could have such power; it was passive circus music, it was eclectic originality, it was non-pompous indie rock. The only way to categorize it properly would be to put it in the same category as Sgt. Pepper’s, which is a category all to its own. When the organs and accordions drew silent, I frantically grabbed a pen and the first scrap of paper I could find and wrote down what the DJ said, or I thought he said. “El Olio Wolf…El Olio Olof…El Olio…what?”" - wordsmithlind
"La Lamentor delivers an impressive set of dusty folk rock ballads that easily recall the quieter side of Neil Young and maybe even some Elliot Smith. It only took one listen for the addictive melodies of lead singer/songwriter Adam Shearer’s best tunes to find a new home lodged inside my head." - Pop Headwound
I had the pleasure of running sound for Weinland (myspace | vimeo) at the Skinless Productions Art Gallery in June. The audio rig at Skinless is small and I pretty much just run vocals and an occasional line in or two.
The point is that Weinland sounded fantastic. Their levels were even across the board. To me, it's a sign of a good band when everyone knows where they fit without needing any help from the sound guy. I just raised the vocals and cello so that they fit in.
But, don't take my word for it. Here are some videos for your viewing and listening pleasure:
Douglas Jenkins of the Portland Cello Project joined their tour prior to the show. I'm so glad he did. Hopefully the video's can illustrate why.
So go see Weinland play. Tell them, "Chris says hello." They'll tell you stories of the road and be happy to share their time with you. They have super cool t-shirts as well. Thank you guys for a fantastic show and the chance to meet some wonderful people. Best of luck to you all.
Reviews:
“Sick as a Gun” and “The Devil in Me” both document drunken power games (or the past-times of those who dig drama) and seem set during the yesteryear when drama was an even better game of chess because the advent of cell phones hadn’t introduced its expedited means of conflict-resolution. Consider the following: “Don’t pick up the phone, I’d rather think there’s no one home / And I will leave my voice, and never tell you where I’ve been” (“Sick as a Gun”); “He knows he’ll always love her so he carves it in his arm / Hoping she will call him and break his fucking heart” (“The Devil in Me”). Land lines? Enough time in between calls to get a tattoo? That was another world, one where romantic disputes weren’t solved by deleting friends on MySpace. Such mind games may have been inspired by Weinland’s six-year tenure working with emotionally-disturbed adolescents. Weinland himself has noted that much of the content on this LP was written in the studio while recalling personal stories or everyday struggles. -by David MacFadden-Elliott on Crawdaddy!
Having spent most waking and sleeping moments on the road since late March in service of supporting its sophomore LP "La Lamentor," the Portland-based sextet Weinland staged a triumphant return to its native soil in front of a packed, energized crowd at the Aladdin Theater on Saturday night, bringing fellow Stumptown indie purveyors Norfolk & Western and A Weather along for the ride in a terrific all-local bill. -by COREY duBROWA on www.oregonlive.com
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