vortex music magazine issue 4

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FREE! | I S S U E 4 | VRTXMAG.COM A CHRONICLE OF PORTLAND’S MUSICAL VORTEX

PLUS

page 22

page 16

SHY GIRLS

SLEATER-KINNEY

THE THERMALS

MANNY MONDAY

ANDREW OLIVER

PAPI FIMBRES

THARA MEMORY

DAN STILES

AND MORE!

WOMEN,

A GUIDE TO PORTLAND’S MUSIC VENUES!

MUSIC & FASHION

IN PORTLANDAT THE ALTAR OF THE THREE MUSES

VORTEXM U S I C M A G A Z I N E

Vortex Music Magazine > I S S U E 4 vrtxmag.com2 3

1 TOBIAS JESSO JR OKAY KAYA

2 BRONCHO WYATT BLAIR THE SHIVAS PSYCHOMAGIC

3 ELLIOTT BROOD SHELBY EARL

4 BRONZE RADIO RETURN

SWEAR AND SHAKE

5 THE PREATURES6 THE DOUBLECLICKS JOSEPH SCRIMSHAW MOLLY LEWIS

8 KAKI KING: THE NECK IS A BRIDGE TO THE BODY

REBECCA MARIE MILLER

9 THE PRIDS THE UPSIDEDOWN LEADING PSYCHICS

10 HIS NAME IS ALIVE CYNTHIA NELSON BAND

11 RAMBLE ON BLACK POWER COUNTY

12 WAND VEXX

16 URAL THOMAS& THE PAIN

TEZETA BAND REV SHINES

18 JOSEPH19 CHRIS PUREKA

SERA CAHOONE21 STU LARSEN22 COASTS ZELLA DAY

24 MIKAL CRONIN25 TWIN SHADOW ERIK HASSLE

26 NOSAJ THING CLARK

D TIBERIO

28 SWANSEA US LIGHTS LIQUIDLIGHT

29 NIKKI LANE30 THE HANDSOME

FAMILY WILDEWOOD LEWI LONGMIRE

MAY1 WAXAHATCHEE GIRLPOOL

2 HUSTLE AND DRONE PSYCHOMAGIC TALKATIVE

4 INTER ARMA YAUTJA

5 DELLA MAE6 GEOGRAPHER11 OTHER LIVES RIOTHORSE ROYALE

12 THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION

WE ARE HEX

15 TORRES AERO FLYNN

18 TOVE STYRKE (EARLY SHOW)

18 ELVIS PERKINS (LATE SHOW)

22 KATE TEMPEST23 CASEY NEILL & THE

NORWAY RATS HOOK & ANCHOR ANNALISA TORNFELT

(OF BLACK PRAIRIE)

24 WILL BUTLER JO FIRESTONE

28 HOP ALONG FIELD MOUSE LITHUANIA Visit dougfirlounge.com for complete May calendar

MARCH20 PIGS ON THE WING

(PINK FLOYD TRIBUTE) WELD (NEIL YOUNG TRIBUTE)

21 REDWOOD SON &THE REVELRY

DANIEL KIRKPATRICK THE BRIAN ODELL BAND

22 HOBOSEXUAL WOODEN INDIAN BURIAL GROUND THE YOUNG EVILS

23 THIS WILLDESTROY YOU

CYMBALS EAT GUITARS

24 BIKE THIEF JUST LIONS • SMALL SKIES

25 TIM BARRY JENNY OWEN YOUNGS CORY BRANAN

26 !!! (CHK CHK CHK) HOSANNAS DJ AUSTIN TRETWOLD

27 KITTY, DAISY & LEWIS GEMMA RAY

28 BART HAFEMAN & BERAHMAND

LAURA IVANCIE

29 PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING

DOUBLEPLUSGOOD

30 OH HONEY PUBLIC

31 WHITEHORSE THE WET SECRETS

APRIL

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All shows 8pm doors/9pm show • 21+ unless notedBox office open ½ hour before doors

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Advance tickets at dougfirlounge.comAdvance tickets at dougfirlounge.com

All night happy hour on Mondays for service industry (food handlers or OLCC permit req’d)

Serving Serving BREAKFAST • LUNCH • DINNER • LATE NIGHT

Covered Smoking Patio, Fireplace Room, Free WIFI BREAKFAST • LUNCH • DINNER • LATE NIGHT

Covered Smoking Patio, Fireplace Room, Free WIFI


PHOTO BY ANTHONY PIDGEON

VRTXMAG.COM/decemberistsday

Hear ye! Hear ye! The City of Portland declared January 20 Decemberists Day as our beloved literary folk rock-ers celebrated the release of their seventh studio album—What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World—by playing a packed City Hall, framed by an art piece inspired by the album’s cover and created by 50 local artists and small busi-nesses. See more photos at

SOUNDCHECK


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IN THIS

S P R I N G 2 0 1 5

ISSUE

at the altar of the three muses cover story

Cover photo by Jason Quigley

in the space where music, fashion and women coalesce, the city is being shaped by a creative class of female musicians who are in the spotlight, ceaselessly defining the silhouettes, the sounds and the style of portland

q&a

a musician’s guideto a night out in portlandBY chris young

bucket list

eight venues, seven days, one city

BY chris young

visual artist

dan stiles: making rock stars even coolerBY eric skelton

side projects

papi fimbresand the illusion of time

BY ryan J. Prado

the portland playlist

thara memoryBY chris young

ex-pdx

andrew oliver: a former portlanderswingin’ in london

BY don campbellnew in #pdxmusic

manny monday: real recognize realBY blake hickman

nonprofit spotlight

the jeremy wilson foundationBY andrea janda

BY andrea Janda

"Lead vocals worked so well that I resisted pulling out mics that cost ten times more. That's unusual at this price point for a picky bastard like me."

- Larry Crane patron saint of PDX recording

.EARTRUMPETLABS.COM


EDITOR-IN-CHIEFChris Young

PUBLISHERDavid Mosher

DESIGNEREric Skelton

WEBMASTERArthur Parker

developmentJacob Thom

CONTRIBUTORS

WRITERSDon CampbellBlake HickmanAndrea JandaRyan J. PradoEric Skelton

PHOTOGRAPHERSBeth Olson

Anthony PidgeonJason Quigley

digital contributorsJohn Alcala, Autumn Andel,

Christina Bargel, Ryan Beane, Emma Browne, Ollie Collins,

Lucas Creighton, Robinson Eaton, Ronit Fahl, Heather Hanson, Patrick Harris, Roddy Jasa,

Brendan Swogger

ADVERTISINGMedia Kit + Other Requests

[email protected]

ALL OTHER COMMENTS + [email protected]

Vortex Music Magazine is

published quarterly byVortex Music Magazine, LLC

1111 SE Grand Ave. #122Portland, OR 97214All rights reserved.

VRTXMAG.COMemail: [email protected]

visit: www.specializedmastering.com

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call: (503) 866-8383 Portland

"Dana! You did such a wonderful job! It polished everything off so well and made it all sound very professional.” - Liz Fohl

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Hailey Niswanger, Midnite, David Friesen,George Colligan, Tony Ozier, Ed Bennett,Coco Columbia, The Legendary Beyons,Farnell Newton, Max Ribner, Chris Lay,Erick Lewis, Amber Sweeney, MYGand many more...

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Portland’s music scene is constantly evolving, and striving to chronicle this distinctive musical vortex requires our own evolution. It’s been a year since we launched our website, and that means it’s time for a little update. As we continually seek better, more useful ways to support our music community, we now have the first stage of a new mobile experience waiting for you at vrtxmag.com

vortex on the goWhat you’ll see is just the start of a mobile-optimized presence for Vortex, offering a simplified menu of options to help you discover new music and then encourage you to get out and see it live!

curated concert calendar: Plan your evening or weekend by browsing our staff-selected concert calendar and festival listings, win tickets to a show, and scan the Show Picks for two thumbs up from our team of fervent music fanatics.

music discovery: Explore original content including song and video premieres from local artists as well as articles and interviews.

eye candy: Missed the show? Flip through photo galleries from our spectacular team of shooters and read concert reviews.

think local: You wouldn’t be reading this without the backing of countless contributors and lo-cal businesses who believe in supporting the local music community so check out the Vortex Marketplace in the back of this issue as well as online at vrtxmag.com/marketplace

And in an effort to build a better community, we’ll continue to do our part by giving a percentage of our proceeds to a local music nonprofit. For this issue, 5 percent of all pay-what-you-want sub-scriptions will go to support musicians who are experiencing medical emergencies via The Jeremy Wilson Foundation (which you can read more about on page 29).

If you’ve already subscribed, thanks! Now, tell a friend. If not, you can pay nothing, cover the cost of your postage, or the sky’s the limit—just visit vrtxmag.com/subscribe

Take Vortex on the go with you and follow our passionate yet evolving chronicle of Portland’s musical Vortex.

Chris Young, Editor-In-Chief

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

change is the only constant

vrtxmag.com 11Vortex Music Magazine > I S S U E 410

A MUSICIAN’S GUIDE TO A NIGHT OUT IN PDX the best food, drink and live music spots according to those that know: local musicians.

PUBAND

GRUB

COCKTAILHOUR

BESTPLACE TO

PERFORM?

BEST PLACE TO

WATCHA SHOW?

SEE ‘EMLIVE!

JANET WEISS HUTCH HARRIS KATHY FOSTERDRUMS IN SLEATER-KINNEY

“My favorite is probably Hair of the Dog or Gigantic. I’ll get a salad or a burger and start with a stout or an IPA.”

“Not that into brew-eries or beer, but I do like the Wid-mer Hefe. That and a pepperoni slice at the L aurelhurst Theater and I’m stoked!”

“I love a good Old Fashioned. I don’t want any of that throw a whole orange slice and a bunch of cherries in there BS. In Portland, I can usually get a great Old Fashioned at Dig A Pony or Church.”

“My favorite place to perform is either Holocene or Dig A Pony. Holocene is sort of my home turf for many reasons. And the Doug Fir always sounds pretty good when Mick is on the board.”

“Same as above really: Holocene or the Doug Fir.”

Shy Girls will headline the Wonder Ballroom on May 29, but until then, you can down-load his new free mixtape 4WZ at shygirls4wz.com.

“The Know! Also East End, RIP. I love going to the Kenton Club. It has that small logger town feel that Portland used to have more of. Cheap, stiff drinks, pool, a great ‘70s lodge look and cool woodwork!”

“The Know. My other band, Hurry Up, has played there a bunch and it’s super fun. It may be the last true punk club in Portland! Punk rock, booze, pinball, cheap shows, punks, weirdos, old neighborhood regulars: It feels like home.”

“All three Thermals love a dirty martini. I’ve never had it too dirty—it’s usually not dirty enough. A standout was at Dig A Pony when the bartender gave me an olive juice back so I could make it even dirti-er if I wanted.”

“Despite not liking hops in general, I like Hopworks on Powell. I’ll order a burger and whatever beer is the lightest color. Pilsners are my favorite.”

“This may sound strange but I’ve never had a beer. A glass of French red wine is more my speed—can get a nice one paired with a delicious burger and fries (with truffle oil) at Sapphire Hotel on SE Hawthorne.”

The margarita: “Taqueria Nueve has a great one—it doesn’t taste like it was made from powder. Bunk Bar has the slushy margarita, which is very deli-cious but potent!”

“For a more intimate setting, I still love the Doug Fir. The sound is wonderful, the load-in is easy, and there is a good restaurant upstairs. For a larger show, I would say the Crystal beats everything else in town at that size.”

“The intimate shows at the music shop Mothership Music are not to be missed.”

Back in action, Sleater-Kinney headlines one of Weiss’ favorite venues (the big one: Crystal Ball-room) with Seattle’s THEESatis-faction opening on May 5.

“The closest thing I’ll order to a cocktail is whiskey on the rocks. I like the Bar of the Gods on Hawthorne. No god would ever step foot in there. When I go there, it’s mostly drunk comedians.”

“I love the Crystal Ballroom. It’s big and old and there’s an endless supply of tater tots.Plus, people are al-ways complaining about it, which only makes me like it more.”

“Lately, I’ve been really liking Mississippi Studios. The space is even better now that they’ve made it bigger, and the burgers next door at Bar Bar are awesome.”

The dude is constantly showing off his comedic shtick around town and on Twitter. Follow @thethermals for chuckles and updates on where he (or the band) is performing next.

Catch Foster’s other band Hurry Up: She plays drums and The Ther-mals’ drummer Westin Glass picks up the guitar alongside Maggie Vail on bass.

THE PORTLAND PLAYLIST

THARA MEMORY

THARA MEMORY SHARES THE SONGS THAT INSPIRE HIS MUSIC—PLUS A COUPLE OF TRACKS THAT HE JUST CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT. LISTEN TO HIS PLAYLIST AND DOWNLOAD A SONG OF HIS AT VRTXMAG.COM/PLAYLIST

Musical Genre: Jazz, soul, R&B and more

street cred: Trumpeter, bandleader, teacher, opera collaborator, classical con-ductor and composer, Memory has more than half a century of honing his chops. On paper, he’s an Oregon Music Hall of Fame inductee, won a Grammy in 2013 with his mentee Esperanza Spal-ding, and has been recognized as Musician of the Year by the Jazz Society of Oregon, as well as shared stages with many local and international jazz greats and the Oregon Symphony.

local loves: Bassists Errick Lewis and Leroy Vinnegar, drummer Mel Brown, and “Ural Thomas is back, man. That’s the real deal... a lot of stuff that James Brown got, he got from Ural.”

inspirational and influential:Rafael Méndez: “La Vir-gen de la Macarena”

can’t live without: James Brown: “Cold Sweat” “None of y’all should be living without... well actually, y’all can’t live without it but you don’t really know it. It’s in every-thing. You see, when that song came out man, it changed—it changed all grooves. It made a new groove, it swung a new groove.”

Prince: “Musicology”“When James Brown left this planet, he left it all to Prince.”

Download thara memory’s “You Are Everything” from his second record chronicle

and add it to your personal

playlist at vrtxmag.com/

playlist

GUITAR IN THE THERMALS BASS IN THE THERMALSDAN VIDMARAKA SHY GIRLS

Vortex Music Magazine > I S S U E 412

DAN STILES: MAKING ROCK STARS EVEN COOLER

A fter 20 years of designing iconic concert posters that take advantage of bold geometric shapes and bright color palettes to create striking

works of art, dan stiles has developed the ability to seamlessly infuse the raw energy of rock music with the simplistic aesthetics of modern design. Having spent his salad days as a pen-and-ink artist in the DIY punk scene, Stiles ended up cre-ating logos at a major design firm in San Francisco after college. The polarizing experiences birthed a unique style that has become his signature. “I started to make this hybridization of old, lowbrow punk visuals combined with the simplicity of cor-porate communications, all created using digital tools,” he explains.How did you start making concert posters?In the late ‘80s, I was living in Eugene in a huge co-op that used to be a sorority house. I would wander around the house in the middle of the night with a six-pack of beer and a handful of Magic Markers and draw stuff on the walls. There was a guy living there who was involved with a promotion group that would bring bands to play on campus. He saw my stuff on the walls and was like, “Hey, do you want to do posters?” He had to twist my arm at first. Finally he said, “Look, $20 and all the beer you can drink at the show plus free tickets for you and all your friends.” And I said, “Alright, I’ll do it.” The minute I did my first one, I was sold because it was like legal graffiti—you can do a flyer and

someone else will go tack it all over town for you. All of a sud-den I went from being a music

fan to being a part of making shows happen, all by drawing some skulls on a sheet of paper.Why do you live and work in Portland?Portland has that perfect mix of big-city ame-nities combined with manageable scale. Peo-ple come here from all over to make stuff and take part in generating an environ-ment of creativity. This city is the antithe-sis of driving your Escalade to Olive Garden to watch Monday Night Football after work.What tools do you use to make posters?My core tools are a sketchbook, a mechanical pencil, an iMac, a Wacom tablet, Adobe Illustra-tor and Adobe Photoshop.What’s your favorite thing about concert posters as an art medium?I like the freedom you get to really go there. Most clients try and reel you in because they’re risk-averse. Rock posters can ex-plore the outer limits of whatever weirdness you have rattling around inside your brain. Your job is to take someone who’s already cool and make them look even cooler.What do you listen to when you work?It all depends on my mood. Sometimes I’ll get pumped up and crank Kyuss, Ex Hex or Run The Jewels. Or maybe I’ll chill out with Ladytron, Father John Misty or The Evens. I’ve got music going in the studio all day long, so I can cover a lot of bas-es. There’s nothing wrong with listening to The Stooges and Danny Brown back to back.Besides music, what inspires your work?Art and design. I look at a lot of stuff. Constantly. And I like to read. I don’t think there is a big difference between drawing and writing. You’re coming up with an idea and

then trying to get it down on paper. Writers have a process and work ethic that can easily be applied to visual arts.Do you make anything in addition to posters?I’ve grown my practice to include advertising, album covers, book jackets, magazine illustration, fabric design, children’s books, logos, T-shirts. If it needs an image, I’ll design it, regardless of what it is.What advice do you have for someone who wants to do what you do for a living?Most people get into design to make “cool” stuff. The problem is there’s a rare sort of client who needs this type of work—and they come to you, you don’t go to them. You have to have a body of really great work and then they’ll show up and say, “Give me a piece of that.” Keep your day job, pay your bills, and make something else at night: an awesome blog, posters for your friend’s band, a screen printed zine. Whatever it is, make sure people see it. Don’t make one and then put it in

the closet. Get it out into the world and onto the internet.

If people like it then it will take flight.

see more of dan stiles’ work including details on his new poster design

book and a gallery of his posters at

vrtxmag.com/danstiles

BY eric skelton

VISUAL

artist

vrtxmag.com 13

WITH PREFORMANCES FROM

THE ANTLERSWILD ONES SHOOK TWINS

MYKE BOGANACOUSTIC MINDS

MUSÉE MÉCANIQUESHAPRECETOPE

THE MINDERSJUST LIONS

MAGIC FADESTHE FLAVR BLUEANCIENT HEAT RIO GRANDSBEVELERS

PURSE CANDY BREAK MODETANGERINE

CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION MOON BY YOUSNOWBLIND TRAVELERRILLA SANCHO

MR BONESARLO INDIGO HEMINGWAYTHE HAGUE

OUR FIRST BRAINS

∙

∙∙∙

∙∙ ∙∙∙

∙∙∙∙

∙∙∙

∙∙∙∙

MODERN KIN

AT PARTICIPATING VENUES ACROSS PORTLANDWATCH FOR MORE AT KPSU.ORG

Vortex Music Magazine > I S S U E 414 15

get competitive but I like the competitive spirit—it makes us all want to go hard.”

Stewart Villain definitely holds a special place in the geography of Manny Monday, though. Much of Workaholix is produced by Stew, and in many cases, the titles of beats that he sent Manny were left unchanged. “A lot of people ask me, ‘Yo, why do you have these weird names on your tracks?’ Stew sends me beats with these names and they’re dope so I don’t really change them,” Manny explains.

Occasionally, the original Villain titles find themselves referenced in the lyrics, such as on “Hockey Sticks” where Manny compares himself to “Gretzky in his prime,” but on a track like “Caterpiller,” the connections are more nebulous.

“Caterpiller” is one of the central tracks on Workaholix. Over a beat that shifts between atmospheric jazz and fren-zied Atlanta-style trap (which incidentally perfectly illustrates the versatility of Stewart Villain as a producer), Manny again finds him-self waxing poetic about his past and how to move forward, distorted. “As I sit and reflect,

I got bills to pay... I won’t stop till I see it progress, my reality is struggle but I dream of success,” Manny raps.

Interestingly enough, “Caterpiller” is one of those rare hip-hop tracks without explicit language. “Trying to play edited versions of songs is just weird,” Manny explains. “I don’t like edited nothing, I like the raw. So if you listen to ‘Caterpiller,’ there’s no profanity but there’s still substance—I still get my point across.” The track comes to a stunning climax with the distorted voice of Manny Monday re-citing the Serenity Prayer.

Manny definitely has an ear for production though, and whether it’s the numerous joints produced by Stewart Villain or the other producers he chooses to work with, each track manages to feel dis-tinctly his own.

There’s a lot to expect from Manny over the next year. He’s cur-rently working on a new mixtape that will drop this summer. Man-

ny also has a lot of features that are coming soon, from an ap-pearance on Stewart Villain’s producer-centric release

to another guest track with Dre C.

I’ve only seen Manny headline a show once—last September at Kelly’s Olympian—and like the first time I listened to Workaholix, it was an experience I won’t soon forget. After guesting during the aforementioned Dre C’s set, Man-ny took the stage and led the crowd through a blistering hour-long set, spending much of the night off the stage, rapping in a crowd that was spitting his lyrics back at him. A similar gesture made by another artist could feel contrived or awkward, but on that night,

Manny just felt like one of us.

And in many ways, he is.

on the Dre C track “Top Of The World”) and was obviously a forma-tive experience for the young emcee. “And so seeing people graduate and move on, sometimes I’d get in this weird, dark place—when I wrote ‘Wimbledon Arena’ I was in one of those moments.”

“i got to get my shit together: only two things i fear and that’s god and being a failure” — “wimbledon arena”

In a city filled with people working multiple jobs while balancing life, work, school and art, “Wimbledon Arena” should be a widely accepted Portland anthem. After all, Manny was trying to find that same balance himself when he wrote that track and the one that follows it: “Caterpiller.”

“I was just trying to weigh whether or not I should try again with school or really push the music,” Manny pauses. “I’m constantly in a battle between that all the time.” Not long after our interview, I spotted Manny on the campus of Portland State University carrying art supplies. Apparently that battle is still playing itself out.

While it’s ultimately up to Manny to determine his future, Workaholix is proof positive that Manny can hang with the best of them and should have a bright future ahead of him in the Portland music scene. He’s not in this battle alone, though.

It’s impossible to write about Manny without mentioning the Soar Losers. For those unaware, the Soar Losers are a Portland hip-hop collective whose members include Manny Monday, Stew-art Villain, Myke Bogan, Vinnie Dewayne, Tre Redeau and T Spoon. They haven’t made a formal project together—yet—but they routinely guest on each other’s features and regularly per-form together at gigs, announced or unannounced. (See last year’s PDX Pop Now! when Vinnie Dewayne stole the weekend by guesting on fellow Losers Tre Redeau and Stewart Villain’s fes-tival performances.) It’s safe to say that the Portland hip-hop scene has never witnessed a collective encompassing this many of the city’s most popular and critically acclaimed hip-hop artists.

While Myke Bogan continues to build an audience outside of Port-land and Vinnie Dewayne’s contemplative lyrics have gained him recent converts in the Portland music media, the 2014 releases by Manny Monday and T Spoon (whose The Cost Of Living is another criminally underrated release) have gone relatively unnoticed. Then, there’s Stewart Villain, who completes the col-lective both as an emcee (his project No Man-ners features a host of different producers including Portland R&B act Magic Fades) and as a producer (producing joints for each of the Losers and members of the wider Portland hip-hop community from Tope to Load B).

“last time I checked my clique was good, we don’t need any more new homies” —“Hockey Sticks”

Manny seems to be aware of just how special his crew is. Oft referencing the collec-tive on Workaholix, “Everybody wants to be the best in the clique,” Manny says. “And it does

so whenever I’m going through something, I hit the inbox and look for a beat,” Manny explains. It’s the fact that Workaholix is based in universal, everyday struggles that makes it feel like such a timeless work. The first track on the album is about how terrible Mondays are—it’s hard to get more relatable than that. Beyond everything else though, Workaholix is a document of an artist at a crossroads.

“I had a full-ride scholarship for four years to Morehouse College in Atlanta. I needed a fifth year to finish and unfortunately I wasn’t able to secure the funds,” Manny says. “And when I came back, it was like square one for me.” Manny’s experience as a college dropout is referenced throughout Workaholix (as well as during his feature

new in #pdxmusic

REALRECOGNIZE

Beyond Manny Monday himself, though, is his work. His 2014 mix-tape Workaholix was a singular work in Portland hip-hop last year, a work that went relatively unnoticed by the local press. It’s a shame because Workaholix is exactly the kind of project that could resonate with a larger Portland audience.

While so many hip-hop projects get mired in skits, topical content, and simply too many tracks, Workaholix shines as a focused piece of work with a great deal of thematic unity. At the heart of Work-aholix is struggle.

“I think the best music can come from struggle or life experience,

THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT MANNY MONDAY IS HIS VOICE. THE THING THAT SEPARATES A GOOD EMCEE FROM AN AVERAGE ONE IS A DISTINCT VOICE—WHEN YOU HEAR GHOSTFACE KILLAH, OR NAS, OR EVEN PORTLAND’S OWN TOPE GUEST ON A FEATURE, YOU IMMEDIATELY RECOGNIZE THEM. MANNY’S FORCEFUL FLOW AND UNDERLYING GRIT GIVE HIS VOICE THAT SAME INDELIBLE QUALITY. THERE’S ALSO HIS PHRASING: MANNY KNOWS WHEN TO SHIFT FROM VOCAL ACROBATICS THAT

SHOW HIS SKILLS TO A MORE DELIBERATE DELIVERY THAT PROVES HIS POINT.

BY BLAKE HICKMANREAL

manny

monday

“THE BEST MUSIC CAN COME FROM STRUGGLE.”

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monday

thursday

thursday

friday

saturday

sunday

tuesday

wednesday

AT AL’S DEN

at doug fir lounge

at mississippi studios

evening at mississippi pizza

night at the secret society

This intimate, underground lair doesn’t just feel like a speakeasy, it was the actual turf of Portland’s gamblingkingpin Al Winter in the 1940s. Today’s scene features free music every night starting at 7pm—that’s stripped-down, week-long residencies with local and national talent, both known for inviting a selection of new special guests each night. With a typical McMenamins’ flair for interior decoration, concert posters even cover the bathroom walls and, if you’re of a certain gender, don’t miss the massive, turn-of-the-century porcelain urinals.

Whether you’re seeking a slice or a full pie, let it be known that this is not a pizza parlor. There’s the typical dining area with the glass case displaying cheesy concoctions, but then there’s a door that leads into a separate, spacious music venue with a back-corner bar. The calendar’s always full of local talent, and early shows are donation only while later 21-and-over concerts—featuring everything from three-band bills of indie rockers to hip-hop to plenty of bluegrass, blues, swing, jazz and singer-songwriters—often have a cover of no more than $5-10.

Okay, the kids are filled with pizza. Ditch them with a sitter and head to Jumptown—that’s hot jazz swing dancing in Portland’s most secretive ballroom with a storied history. Built by the Woodmen of the World in 1907 and home to Portland’s African-American Freemasons for nearly 50 years, today the ballroom hosts a proudly eclectic line-up of intimate live music and events. Decked out in velvety blood reds and dark wood, the former members-only fraternal organization now features a female-only women’s lounge as the entry to the washroom and a full-service recording studio directly below the ballroom, which is even equipped to capture live performances happening upstairs.

Yet another mid-sized Portland venue known for booking an artistically diverse offering, this convertedwarehouse with sweeping white walls and 25-foot ceilings definitely caters to a dancier demographic with regular DJ nights every weekend supplemented by indie rock, electronic music, art installations, storytelling, film screenings, modern dance, and other events throughout the week.

A historic silent film house turned burlesque theater that’s been elegantly remodeled (yet still reportedly haunted by the ghosts of pasties past), the Star Theater was reopened in 2011 in time for its 100th birthday. With its booths, bar areas and an isolated balcony, the room feels strangely put together but has a feng shui that works and sounds great—plus offers all-ages shows to boot.

Devout Portland music scenesters and aficionados flock to their indoor-outdoor (depending on the season) house of worship for impeccably curated, free Sunday Sessions in SE Portland. The man behind the scenes is Theo Craig, the sole booker responsible for bringing all sorts of rising local and touring talent to “the city’s biggest intimate music venue—Portland music is made here,” he says.

A perennial favorite with musicians and fans, this log cabin bunker with a touted soundsystem packs a punch of up-and-comers alongside revered acts almost every night of the week. The minimalist but efficient downstairs venue is complemented by a restaurant upstairs that aesthetically straddles the line between Twin Peaks and a cosmopolitan truck stop diner, full of Northwest woodwork and mid-century modern design.

From a Baptist church to a recording studio to a live music venue created for musicians by musicians, the lovingly crafted, sonically superior, intimate room recently saw an efficient remodel that streamlined the space. Located in the heart of Historic Mississippi Avenue’s commercial corridor, the venue hosts two- and three-band bills just about every night, each backed by illuminated bass drums emblazoned with the marks of other local, musician-owned boutiques like instrument specialists Revival Drum Shop and Black Book Guitars.

al’s den

mississippi pizza

the secret society

holocene

star theater

rontoms

doug fir lounge

mississippi studios

enter the subterranean digs through the triangular ringlers annex entrance on west burnside.

most nights see multiple acts (or events like bingo, baby ketten karaoke, trivia or djs) take the venue’s intimate stage and evenings often start with family-friendly performances by the likes of kids’ music mainstays red yarn (thursdays) and mr. ben (tuesdays).

as you head up the stairs to the second-story suite, check out the black-and-white photos remembering the space’s former inhabitants.

if you show early before the crowds and noise, there’s plenty of loungeable space for you to catch up with friends and make a memento in the photo booth before things get hazy.

arrive early so you can explore the place uninhibitedly or claim the booth beside the soundboard.

if it’s wintery, there’s plenty of space on the palatial patio—room enough for ping-pong—but if it’s summery, the patio’ll be packed.

if you’re looking for something you can’t get anywhere else, try the old forester (a bourbon that the df hand-picked at the distillery in kentucky) on the rocks with a doug fir logger beer back by breakside brewery.

chairs are only available on high so arrive early if you want the bird’s-eye view from the seated balcony.

belly up to the bar and order a big al’s old fashioned (made with edgefield’s single malt hogshead whiskey) and anything off the menu of the zeus café upstairs before making your way into the dim, cozy confines of the den.

hitting a show at the crystal ballroom later? your receipt earns you early entry before the doors open.

showed up hungry or worked up an appetite? thin-crust pies come sauced with reds, whites or pestos and topped with countless options that are meat- and veggie-filled as well as vegan and gluten-free.

poke your head into the snug, street-facing, lumberjack-walled lounge and order one of the many craft cocktails that makes this place a destination. moscow mules are of course served in coveted copper cups, manhattans and old fashioneds are ever-popular, and it’s one of the only places in town to offer a full range of absinthe served in traditional French fountains.

need a pick-me-up? order a no naps: hot stumptown coffee, lemon hart 151 rum, averna liqueur and soft cream with an orange twist. plus, load up on european-sounding “comestibles,” which taste as good as they sound especially if famished by dance.

go for the gyro: stuffed with lamb, feta and tzatziki sauce (and splashed with sriracha if you want), the mediterranean cuisine comes courtesy of the revered food cart zaalook.

so what does the talent buyer drink? kamadeva’s bow: laird’s applejack brandy, bärenjäger, fresh lemon and orange, hot water.

snacks or dessert—why not both? get popped-to-order popcorn with olive oil, black pepper and parmesan, or try some-thing akin to a vintage jell-o shot—cocktail jellies in classic varieties like manhattan, negroni or kübler absinthe, each paired with dessert sauces.

can’t stand the heat? if the bodies have turned the space into a sweatbox, step outside for a breath of fresh air—just be careful not to be lured away from your party inside and across the street by the glowing marquee of an equally beloved institution: sassy’s strip club.

crowded inside? step outside, enjoy the sweeping patio, and huddle around the firepit if you’re feeling frigid.

Ii your tummy starts to rumble, power through a burger or “go for that beet salad if you’re ‘trying to be good,’” craig suggests.

a word from the wise: “the bartenders can totally hear how that tinder first date is going and they know how much you tip. keep that in mind and tip appropriately,” craig advises.

gotta go? use the venue’s bathroom and you may bump into the night’s headliner since there’s no can backstage. crowded? hop upstairs but don’t get turned around in the mirror-filled funhouse space. then again, don’t be too embarrassed because the staff is already familiar with the “spectacular thuds” that emanate from within.

show’s over and you’re starving? the restaurant stays open late (and opens early—it’s actually open 20 hours a day) so grab a fir burger with candied bacon. and order your fries extra crispy.

but if you show really early, plunk down in the adjoining bar bar or on its massive patio and start with a $5 daytime drink special—margarita or bloody mary. although that ends at 4pm, it’s precisely when happy hour starts.

feeling tipsy post show? get a room in the crystal hotel back where you started—which’ll also gain you access to the adjacent soaking pool.

seeing as it’s a burger lounge, the rotating burger of the month is a requisite. pair with fries or onion rings, but if you insist, you could get something healthy on the side like a kale salad.

take your drink inside the venue, bask in the dim glow of the orbed chandeliers between acts, and when all the dancing is done, head back to the patio and settle in next to an open flame or find an isolated corner in the secret garden.

check these off your list








at holocene

at star theater

at rontoms

you have one week before portland self-destructs. time’s ticking so here’s a week’s worth of venues to check out and check off your bucket list. by chris young

eight venuesseven days one city

vrtxmag.com 19

“I was put on this earth—or this earth was put on me —to fucking play music. I know it,” Fim-bres asserts. “I know it 100 percent. It’s very ex-hilarating and very enlightening to know that I can play music and be happy and share this sound with people and people can relate to it and reciprocate.”

For Portlanders, at least temporarily, time to relate to and/or reciprocate that sound and en-ergy is running out. Fimbres and his wife Shana Lindbeck (also of Orquestra Pacifico Tropical) are moving to Germany for a year beginning in August 2015. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, they’ve already forged a duo, dubbed Dreckig, which translates to dirty in German. Dreckig is recording an album prior to the couple’s depar-ture and will perform the album abroad during their stay. Additionally, the other two members of Sun Angle are planning to fly out to perform some shows, and Fimbres’ Paper/Upper/Cuts project is also likely to see stage time through-out Germany and Northern Europe.

“I feel like I’m on such a rad high right now and I figured why not continue this in another environment and ignite something different in other people?” Fimbres asks.

It must be mentioned that Fimbres’ lust for life is as infectious and energetic as his musicality. There are passions gurgling beneath the inflec-tions of his colorful vernacular, zeal in every “rad,” “mega” or “super” adjective that belie—though sometimes accentuate—his deep, per-sonal, cosmic connection with the music he’s made and the music he wants to be a part of creating in the future. And that is key to un-derstanding the scope by which Fimbres oper-

ates his thriving network of projects. They are about capturing moments, oftentimes sponta-neously and without rehearsal, and then mov-ing on. Anticipating near-future evolutions are just as important as recreating the sparks that yield whatever “sustained artistic merit” might mean. Fimbres seems to understand that the longer you try to bottle lightning, your spark is bound to get zapped.

“Anything is possible in this world, which is amazing,” says Fimbres, in closing. “I’m really fortunate and excited about everything in life right now. Fucking life rules!”

“i feel like i’m on such a rad high right now and ifigured why not continue this in another environ-ment and ignite something different in other people?”

After answering an ad found in the back of a Portland weekly, Fimbres joined his first band, Prime Meridian, an atmospheric, guttural, heavy band that he admits wasn’t quite hitting the nail on the head for him yet.

“I didn’t know what I was doing; I still didn’t have my own voice, musically speaking,” Fim-bres says. “We played around for a while and then I eventually started meeting other friends like Skyler Norwood and Talkdemonic.”

Soon, Fimbres joined another band. And an-other. And probably another one, too. The rest is sort of history.

“I started realizing, ‘Hey man, why don’t I just join more bands and play as much as I can?’ To this day I still hold true to that.”

Perhaps most striking about Fimbres’ musical orbiting is the sheer aural variety inherent in the projects he chooses to be part of. With foot-ing in math-rockian experimental drumming, jazzy syncopation, and dexterity with congas and timbales, as well as flute, his is a menag-erie of mystical sounds that threaten to smash through dimensions at almost every turn.

“The main parameter for me [when consider-ing a new project] is an energetic connection with someone,” Fimbres explains. “I hardly ever just jam with people because it’s not really my thing. It’s always like-minded and we always come to a conclusion like, ‘We need to do this.’ Sometimes it’s a specific idea, and sometimes it’s just spontaneity. Sometimes we just record. It’s a really healthy thing for every musician to do: Try to record an album without any idea as

to what you’re doing or how you’re gonna do it or what it’s gonna sound like. I think it’s very healthy for the human brain to do that, just to create music on the spot and record it. Once you’re done with it, just move forward with life. Make more albums.”

Fimbres is also a notoriously reliable last-min-ute fill-in (this summer’s Lose Yr Mind festival featured Fimbres manning the drum kit on a late request by Wooden Indian Burial Ground), and a hilariously engaging stage presence, to boot. Simply put, the guy looks like he’s having the time of his fucking life every single time he’s performing. Shirt on, shirt off—it doesn’t mat-ter. Turns out he totally is.

IF YOU ATTEND ENOUGH LIVE SHOWS IN THIS CITY,

YOU BEGIN TO RECOGNIZE A LOT OF THE SAME PEO-

PLE IN ATTENDANCE. THERE’S A THIRST FOR THE

VISCERA OF PERFORMANCE IN VENUES BOTH TINY

AND LARGE THAT ATTRACTS THE WONDERMENT OF A

FACTION OF THE ART-STARVED POPULACE WHO SIM-

PLY NEVER TIRE OF HAVING THEIR MINDS BLOWN IN

SOME WAY OR ANOTHER. RARER—ASSUMING YOU GO

SEE A LOT OF DIFFERENT BANDS PLAYING IN MYRIAD

ENVIRONMENTS WITHIN DISPARATE ALCOVES OF THE

OVERARCHING SCENE—IS NOTICING ONE PERSON POP-

PING UP ONSTAGE IN WILDLY DIVERSE PROJECTS ALL

OVER THE PLACE, ALL THE TIME. FOR DAVID “PAPI”

FIMBRES, HIS OMNIPRESENCE IN PORTLAND’S BOIL-

ING-POT MUSICAL COMMUNITY GROWS FROM THAT

SAME BUBBLING PASSION THAT FUELS SHOW-GOING

REGULARS. HE IS SEEKING OUT A COMMUNAL, RECIP-

ROCATING MIND-MELD EVERY TIME HE STEPS ONSTAGE

IN FRONT OF PEOPLE. AND HE STEPS ONSTAGE A LOT. Fimbres is, as of this writing, an active mem-ber of 22 separate projects in the city of Port-land. That’s 22 separate groups of interpersonal chemistry to navigate, 22 personal mindsets to negotiate, 22 rehearsals—potentially—to fit into a day that, last time anyone checked, only has 24 hours in it. Among this panorama of bands are the fantastic cumbia-centric group Orquestra Pacifico Tropical, the experimental prog-punk of Sun Angle, the decadent elec-tro-funk-pop of Minden, and that’s not even counting Fimbres’ impressively psychedelic dance experimentations as Paper/Upper/Cuts, one of his aliases. It’s a dizzying, dazzling kind of world he lives here in Portland these days. But it didn’t start out all roses.

Growing up in the poor Latino neighborhood of Pico-Union, just outside downtown Los An-geles, Fimbres’ childhood was marred by sib-lings in gangs, helicopters hovering overhead, gunshots at night, and not much music.

“I thought that was normal,” Fimbres ex-plains. “My mom really did not want me to live the same life that my older siblings did. So she involved me in music classes for free at a rec center.”

At 4 years old, Fimbres was learning the piano and soon moved onto flute. After a few years, however, he was introduced to the drums. Fim-bres took off from there, playing not only tradi-tional drumsets, but beginning to experiment with Latin and South American rhythms on all kinds of percussion instruments. Ten years later, in the winter of 1999, Fimbres found him-self, quite spontaneously, moving into a cheap apartment on 102nd and Sandy in NE Portland.


side projects


sicians and a lot more work. Way more work. It’s huge. It’s a particularly good time right now in London. Things had been on a little bit of a downturn in Portland, with all the venues clos-ing as I was leaving. What I found here that’s surprising is swing music. It’s really popular at the moment. There are a lot of young people who like to go out dressed up in vintage clothes and listen to swing music.”

Oliver fell easily in with the genre, forming his own band, Oliver’s Dime Notes, and playing with various other groups, including the Old Hat Jazz Band, and in duos and quartets with clarinetist Dave Horniblow.

Though swing helps keep his datebook full, he hasn’t abandoned his contemporary jazz pur-suits. Three music schools in London are pro-ducing a tremendous number of great jazz play-ers, he says, but it’s taken a bit longer for him to crack the scene. He’s worked his way into the popular Vortex Jazz Club, as well as sever-al well-established jazz series that are finding

favor. “They’re usually in the upstairs rooms of neighborhood pubs,” he says. “It does take a fair amount of time to get around so there tends to be a bit of a neighborhood vibe.”

Not unlike Portland in the vibe department, he’s also found that there’s an intrepid spirit to chase new musical ideas without concern for monetary recompense. “There are people here who are super world-class, right? One of the things I always appreciated about Portland was that the top-level players are really amaz-ing. Portland’s always been lucky to have such high-quality musicianship even compared to other West Coast cities. Here, people are always up for doing stuff. They have enough gigs that they can find time during the day to play and work on new stuff.”

One avenue for modern jazz is Oliver’s trio, Rubik, which helps satisfy his need for piano trio jazz. With Tim Fairhall on bass and Jon Desbruslais on drums, the three exhibit an intense desire to squeeze every ounce of en-

ergy out of the pieces they perform. As with Tord Gustavsen’s expansive trio offerings, Rubik displays a deft and sensitive touch in each and every exploration.

Oliver has no immediate plans to return to the States, but doesn’t rule out the possibility. In the meantime, he has his hands full with steady work, plenty of chances to explore jazz, and the opportunity to expand his talents. He will tour through our area in March with the Tunnel Six band and do an album release with The Kora Band on March 28 in the ballroom at The Secret Society.

Truth be told? He misses Portland. “It’s re-ally dirty here,” he says. “Just because of the size of the city, it’s inevitably filthy. And I miss my family and friends. The nature scene here is cool, though, but it takes a while to get to, unlike Portland.”

As for the jazz scene, he’s found a vibrant and vital home.

BACK IN 2008, PIANIST ANDREW OLIVER WAS AN EFFUSIVE FORCE IN THE PORTLAND JAZZ SCENE. AN INVENTIVE AND ORIGINAL PLAYER, HE WAS

NOT AFRAID TO PUSH THE ENVELOPES OF STYLE AND COMPOSITION, THANKS TO THE COUNSEL AND COACH-ING OF FAMED ROSE CITY PIANISTS RANDY PORTER AND DARRELL GRANT. HIS EARLY-CAREER RECORDING, OTIS STOMP, PULLED TOGETHER SOME OF THE CITY’S BEST ENSEMBLE PLAYERS FOR A TRULY INSPIRED 12-SONG ROMP (EIGHT PENNED BY OLIVER) ABOUT WHICH ONE JAZZSCENE REVIEWER SAID, “THIS RECORD IS A DELIGHT, THE PLAYING OUTSTANDING, AND THE FACT THESE GUYS ARE YOUNG DOESN’T HURT EITHER. THEY TIP THE HAT TO THE MASTERS, YET NEVER PLAY IT SAFE. THEY’VE GONE TO SCHOOL, BUT STILL BRING SOMETHING NEW TO THE PARTY. THESE KIDS ARE DANGEROUS. I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT THEY DO NEXT.”

Oliver has never looked back. Not one to let the grass grow under his piano’s sustain pedal, he produced two CDs for that inaugural sex-

tet, jetted off on a U.S. State Department trip to Africa, founded a new ensemble called The Kora Band that featured Kane Mathis on the 21-stringed African kora, and earned various prestigious awards, grants and scholarships for composition and performance.

Other bands followed, including Tunnel Six (which has toured the U.S. and Canada nu-merous times) and The Ocular Concern. In his spare time, he co-founded the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, for which he also served as executive director. And on and on and on.

Cut to July 2013. Oliver, restless and eager to push his own career forward, followed his wife to London, where she had taken a counseling job with The American School. He saw it as one more step in a career that would find him uprooting the, albeit quiet, success he’d had in a relatively small city (but perhaps large by jazz standards) to possibly find success in the thrum and bustle of a large European city.

By phone, in his customary crisp, staccato vocal delivery, Oliver talked about his expatriation, what he’s found in this foreign music scene, and how much he misses Portland.

The move for his wife was good, and he was in no way reluctant to pass up such impetus and opportunity. “I realized there was loads of music to be done here,” he says. “I was up for a change. I felt like I had accomplished a lot in Portland, but I had hit a plateau that I felt like I was stuck at. I thought it was a nice opportunity to par-ticipate in a different scene. And I hadn’t lived in another city since I finished school, which I wanted to do. It worked out for both of us.”

Oliver, who spent time at Portland State Uni-versity studying composition with Charles Gray by day and sponging up the technique and style of drummer Mel Brown, guitarist Dan Balmer and pianist Tony Pacini by night, wasted little time in finding work.

In London, he says, “There are a lot more mu-

photo by clayton harley

vrtxmag.com 23

all of the women were dressed in the Altar Houseline, from arch-shaped A-lines, high-slit T-lines, sheer floral mini yoke dresses, and chiffon batwings, to crop tops and velvet devoré. For some Pacific Northwest flavor, there was a cotton crepe dress with an im-pressionist painting of a mountain on it, and in bright contrast, a shimmering, stage-wor-thy gold shift, complemented by chandelier earrings shaped like stretched-out honey-comb. Tattoos of butterflies, bands of flow-ers, faces and meaningful words peeked out here and there under their sleeves and hem-lines. They took cell phone snapshots of each other and group selfies in between takes.

Ridgway was on hand to smooth fabrics, pose and arrange the models, instructing them on how to look at the camera, the image they

were to project—revealing both the feminine and the fierce at once.

“Okay, show that you’re sweet and nice, and also: ‘Don’t fuck with me.’”

They laughed and steeled their expressions, the camera shutter clicked, and Ridgway gushed, “You all look fucking baller. Amazing.”

Local photographers Jason Quig-ley and Beth Olson, respec-

tively, captured the action center stage as well as back-

stage behind the scenes at the three photo shoots, doc-umenting the process and the rare occasion to pack so much

local talent in one room.

“Every girl is such a babe,” Ridgway says softly, reflect-

ing on the photoshoot at her shop. “Every shape, height,

hair style, personal

s t y l e , they all span such d i f fe re n t elements. Some of the girls have rad-

T wenty women gathered onstage. twenty female musicians, singers and writers, assembled onstage

like a choir standing in a crescent moon half-circle, but there was no music and no singing. they were here in the name of fashion. prêt-à-porter, portland-style. they were called on as the bold, the brave and the beautiful. and everything was coming up threes.

This was the culmination of The Greenroom Collection: a three-part lookbook project fea-turing women in Portland music. The ladies in the limelight and under the stage lights of the Aladdin Theater for this final photo-shoot are part of a powerful triumvirate as timeless as the Triple Goddess and the three muses themselves—represented here as women, music and fashion. If that all sounds a little mythological and witchy, there’s a reason for referencing the feminine divine.

The Greenroom Collection is the starry-eyed, rock star dream child of Cassie Ridgway, owner of Altar (a handmade fashion bou-tique with “an edgy, dark bohemian aesthet-ic”) and member of the band Fault Lines. As a successful woman in two creative businesses for more than four years, Ridgway is explor-ing the overlap between her endeavors in designing and manufacturing clothing and making music.

Altar is situated on Hawthorne’s commercial corridor in SE Port-land and features the Altar Houseline, a collection of small-production garments with striking prints and clean, feminine lines, all envisioned and sewn in the space above the shop. Paired with the house jewelry line, Iron Oxide Designs (crafted by Ridgway’s business part-ner Amy Fox), Ridgway recently honed her vision, teamed up with Fox, and re-branded the shop (formerly Mag-Big) to cater to a specific aesthetic: fashionable and fierce rock-and-roll women with exqui-site taste in jewelry.

Entering the Aladdin,

ical colored hair, mohawks—but they’re all so confident that I was comfortable having them swap around clothing and add their own styling components. Hats, jewelry that they care about, makeup.”

Ridgway’s love of all things fine arts conveys her multidisciplinary background not only in music and performance, but in poetics, English literature and language. Those connections are made in her shop in a myriad of ways, partic-ularly in this collection and it being fabricated with the artist in mind. Her experience as a female musician onstage informs the way she designs clothing, and vice versa.

“The two are inextricably linked,” she explains. “You have to look so great and you’re commu-nicating that you care. You’re not just show-

ing up—you care about what the audience’s experience is. With our band, Fault Lines, we make it a point to dress nicely, to come up with some continuity—this rad, uniformed look. Every show is important and every show is an opportunity to reach a new listener.”

In keeping with the theme of multiplicity, this grand gathering of Portland women in music revealed not only rich and varied musical back-grounds, instruments and styles, but their agility and desire to balance several projects.

Margaret Wehr, a singer and classically trained violinist in Promise the Moon, also performs as a folk-guitar soloist. Wehr dou-ble-majored in music and women’s studies, striking a good balance as a female performer alongside her male counterparts.

“As a woman, I’m always finding myself in bands with men and I have to ask myself, ‘How do I express my voice?’ I love to put something out there that makes people un-comfortable: speaking from my perspective,

things that I experience, things that I observe, ways that other peo-

ple treat me and view me. It can be a struggle to get people to listen and not just

look at you and make a judgment,” Wehr ex-plains. “I always want the female audience members to feel empowered by the things that I have to say but I also don’t want to alienate the male audience members.”


THE STAGE IS AN ALTAR: IT’S AN ELEVATED STRUCTURE MEANT FOR OFFERING AND HONORING—A PLACE TO WORSHIP THE MUSES AND THE DIVINE SPARK WITHIN AND AROUND US.

by andrea janda i photos by jason quigley and beth olson

sisters in song: sara jackson-holman, sarah fennell and moorea masa embody the three graces. photo by jason quigley

< altar’s cassie ridgway

“WHAT WE ARE DOING IS A FORM OF ACTIVISM”

Vortex Music Magazine > I S S U E 424 vrtxmag.com 25

back (standing): allison Hall, margaret wehr, grace peters, luz elena mendoza, jeni wren stottrup, kris doty, sara jackson-holman, sarah fennell, jimi hendrix, amanda spring, shana lindbeck, emily overstreet

Front (Seated): marisa laurelle, cristina cano, moorea masa, kelli schaefer, tai carmen, brookes regenhardt, jessica boudreaux, adrienne hatkin-seely

phot

o by

jas

on q

uigl

ey

vrtxmag.com 27

Moorea Masa, singer, guitarist and former frontwoman of The Ruby Pines, provides backup vocals in the classic soul band Ural Thomas & the Pain. For an expressive per-former like Masa, stepping back from the spotlight might seem counterintuitive, but it has led to several opportunities for live per-formances and studio sessions, most recently recording two tracks with The Decemberists (“Till The Water’s All Long Gone” and “Caroli-na Low”) on their new album What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World. “When you’re in a band, you’re sharing the responsibilities and the center of it—even when I’m singing lead, I’m really sharing the writing with other people. But when it’s just you, it’s super vulnerable.” Masa likens the contrast—being part of large band versus solo work—to leading a double life.

To soothe that solitary sensitivity, Masa re-cently joined forces with Wehr and Allison Hall (of Goose & Fox), who provide backing vocals on her new EP, Oh Mother, with beauti-ful three-part harmony results.

A classically trained pianist and vocalist, Sarah Fennell of Lost Lander is not unlike the other women in the Greenroom project, and put-ting all of this talent together in one room is bound to spark ideas and new collaborations.

“It’s so rad to be around all these ladies be-cause, in my current band, I’m the only fe-male and there’s a lot of dude energy, but they’re all very sensitive dudes. They’re try-ing to teach me about Ani DiFranco,” Fennell laughs and continues, “I don’t get it, I hap-pened too late.”

“I really like doing more than one thing at a time. I was actually just talking to Amanda Spring [vocalist and drummer for Sallie Ford and Point Juncture, WA] about doing a new little project,” Fennell says. “Jamming with some friends, double percussion drums, syn-thesizers, singing... whatever happens. I miss all the female energy. I love my band—I’m so stoked about it, but it is nice to have another outlet too.”

Jeni Wren Stottrup, a singer and keyboard-ist who records under Jeni Wren, is enjoying similar creative time with the musicians in this community.

“Piano is something I’ve been playing since I was 5, so I’m starting to schedule these dates of being around a real piano, turning on the recorder, and just hanging out. It brings me back to some of the sessions I had when I was writing that first EP where I was getting together with friends and showing them the songs I had worked on,” Wren describes.

Wren, formerly of Shy Girls, has a back-ground in political communication, mak-ing her equally adept at working behind the scenes producing shows and marketing. She founded the MUSA Soul Fest and recently joined the PDX Pop Now! team as the media sponsorship coordinator. As a successful or-ganizer, performer, promoter and soon-to-be podcaster, Wren is taking the time to support other musicians in her efforts.

Like Wren, Cristina Cano can attest to the boon of supporting several bands and mul-tiple musical outlets. Cano plays keyboards for Sallie Ford and adds vocals and guitar in Albatross and Siren and the Sea. With Sallie Ford, Cano ventures into “these cool, crazy, psychedelic places—a kind of rock-and-roll thing that I’ve never really explored.” With Albatross, it’s also rock and roll “but I get to wail on it a little more, vocally,” Cano says with a smile. And for her own songwriting, the cerebral folk of Siren and the Sea, Cano describes it as “that heart thing—getting it out there, bleeding it out.” For her, being in multiple bands is instructive: “There’s a rea-son why you get drawn to other projects—you get to use those tools for your own stuff.”

“There are women I’ve seen and known and met on the periphery, but as women we don’t always get to communicate our adoration for

each other,” Cano explains. “It’s really neat to be in a room of 20 women and we’re all talking about, ‘How’s your music going?’ We’re not talking about dudes or babies, it’s more, ‘I’m so excited that my album’s coming out!’ And not feeling ashamed for wanting to look pretty.”

But the women of Portland music aren’t just pretty faces—they are fierce representatives of gender, culture, art and politics. Luz Elena Mendoza leverages her voice locally and across international borders for causes that are im-portant to who she is and where she lives. Mendoza, a singer-song-writer at the core of Y La Bamba and Tiburones, has been play-ing music in Portland for eight years with bands both inside and outside of the city and state. She’s explored her own Mexican heritage in several projects including her appearance on Sergio Mendoza Y La Orkes-ta’s Alarma with “Mi Sangre Es Tu Venta-na,” and Shawn King, the noted civil rights activist from DeVotchKa, on a track for a traveling exhibition of live music, visual art and stories about immigration and Ameri-can identity called Dreaming Sin Fronteras. This winter, she’s recording another Y La

Bamba album with some new collaborators and looking forward to a summer release.

“The Portland music scene is awesome—it’s thriving—but we all just have to remember: There’s a reason why we’re all here, why what we have is so powerful. It’s a responsibility that we have to share with the audience—a healing through what is happening that we can’t deny, and we must come together in that

way,” Mendoza explains. “I really feel that right now and I really want to see more of that in Portland, more of that in every single girl here, and everyone else that I really respect and admire. With music, because we have this gift, we have to do that. That is our job.”

Mendoza’s faith in the strength of Portland’s music scene is also a call to action—to find musical ways to navigate our current social issues and to foster community support. This sentiment is echoed by Ridgway and her en-thusiasm shines through.

“I believe that what we are doing is a form of activism because supporting independent manufacturers is not only cool and edgy—it is what must be done. Designer-manufac-tured production in our city is the high tide raising all ships.” Ridgway’s small-batch, lo-cally made modus operandi keeps Altar af-fordable, accessible and sustainable.

“I’m pretty blue collar about this whole thing,” Ridgway as-serts. And she lives by her word. During the day she dreams up designs and runs her shop, and by night, she waits ta-bles—there’s no fash-ionista attitude that

accompanies her work in either realm. Somewhere, somehow, Ridgway also man-ages to wedge time in for music. That cross-es over into the way that she and her fellow women rock stars dress for work, especially when the workplace is the bright, hot stage where all eyes and ears are focused on them.

“I love making stagewear—dresses that are fun, simple and comfortable but also have this presence to them. For me as a musician, that’s the most awesome thing you can get—this rad-looking dress that’s really striking

“I FELT LIKE I FOUND AN ISLAND OF MY KIN! WE ARE OUR OWN BREED, LADY MUSIC-MAKERS, AREN’T WE? A COLORFUL, VIBRANT, WONDERFUL CLAN.”

left to right: cristina cano, allison hall, margaret wehr, jeni wren stottrup, jimi hendrix, luz elena mendoza

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— TAI CARMEN


and makes a statement, but you can sling your guitar over it and you’re comfortable.”

The stage is like an altar. It’s an elevated structure meant for offering and honor-ing—a place to worship the muses and the divine spark within and around us. One pre-pares the sacred space for ritual—whether it be prayer, meditation or song —and once it begins, we all take part in the ceremony, the celebration and the opportunity for transcen-dence. In building their Altar, Ridgway and Fox find inspirational muses in their female musicians and friends. It’s what The Green-room Collection lookbook is all about—

There’s a vulnerability to being a full-time musician. It’s not only what happens onstage when one puts him or herself out there night after night to entertain, and it’s not just the paycheck that varies from month to month. Musicians work like freelancers, and those who don’t rely on a day job for regular income or, more importantly,

health insurance are especially vulnerable. Jeremy Wilson, former frontman of Portland’s Dhar-ma Bums and Pilot, learned this firsthand when he received a diagnosis of a serious congenital heart condition in 2006. Wilson weathered a very trying medical ordeal, but he also experienced the tremendous kindness of fellow local musicians who helped him.

The result is The Jeremy Wilson Foundation, formed with the vision to build a safety net to provide emergency financial assistance to musicians and their families during a medical cri-sis. Venues and record companies don’t offer traditional benefits—unless you count bar food, cheap beer and a split of the cover charge—but that’s an understood part of the landscape. The self-employed creative class has a higher risk for financial insecurity and its need for adequate healthcare is especially great.

A JWF survey found that musicians are twice as likely as the general public to be uninsured. Operating as a health and services nonprofit for musicians (in partnership with other nonprof-its like The Snowman Foundation), JWF fills a gap through an endowment fund called JWF Musicians’ Emergency Healthcare Fund, as well as fundraising and live events geared towards individual musicians in need of immediate financial help and the generosity of friends, family and fans.

In 2013, JWF gave out more than $93,000 in assistance grants, saved homes from going into foreclosure, and even helped one artist receive an eye transplant—all because musicians are an important part of our culture and “vital creative members of the local economy and community,” encouraging everyone to support “those who make the soundtracks of our lives.”

thoughtful designs and jewelry imbued with meaning that honor and adorn the feminine mystique brought to the stage.

For Ridgway, being a leader in a band is not unlike running a small business and she acknowledges the profound and personal ways that music and fash-ion have shaped her as a business own-er, especially in her level of confidence.

“I was 22 when I opened this store. I was a very young entrepreneur with very big ideas and no money, so I’ve had to be re-ally convincing. I get on my soapbox all

the time and I think that some level of that—the theatrics of it, the actual selling it, making people understand it in a way that they can get inspired by—really comes from what I have learned as a performer.”

What Ridgway has learned so far about her de-sign work can be applied to the music indus-try, or any artistic endeavor for that matter.

“It’s going to be whatever you make of it. That has been eye-opening to me and I really love seeing how versatile it is.”

As versatile as the women of Portland music.

“there’s a reason why we’re all here,why what we have is so powerful.”

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