This is well worth watching. See Macklemore and Ryan Lewis in Bend, 7pm Friday night at the Midtown.
Favorite lines:
"I probably shoulda washed this—smells like R. Kelly sheets. Pisssssssss. ...but shit, it was 99 cents!"
"Velour jumpsuit and some house slippers/dookie-brown leather jacket that I found, digging."
It's Thursday night, time to start the weekend. Here are some staff picks for your perusal.
The Northwest Best concert series continues tonight with Portland’s own string band Fruition and the Dead Carpenters. Fruition has been playing inspired up-beat folk-Americana since 2008 packing dance floors and music halls up and down the coast.
The Dead Carpenters are a high energy roots-rock band from Tahoe City touring in support of their album Ain’t It Strange. Listen to Holy Moses, straight-up Americana gold and then head to the show.
Viper jazz, ragtime and country blues are the preferred flavors of the band Woody Pines. Dancing isn’t mandatory but it is strongly encouraged. The free show starts at 7pm at Mcmenamins.
(Tweedy rocking out at Sasquatch)
Back in June I wrote a little blog post where I generally spoke about my love for the band Wilco. That post came a few hours before I was to see the band for the third time in 2012 at the Idaho Botanical Gardens in Boise.
Since then, I've been to one more Wilco show this year, finishing out my summer Sept. 25 at Britt Fest in Jacksonville. After that expereince I decided to dig a little deeper into why I love this band and that editorial piece is below. For those of you who choose to fully read my bloviating, hopefully you'll be inspired to check out their music. I know it's long, but there was a lot to say.
(If you want, you can stream a Wilco peformance from a couple of nights ago in Madrid while you read.)
WILCO
After finishing off summer at Britt Fest with my fourth Wilco show this year, I feel compelled to write about them and offer a bit of why I love them so much. But in order to editorialize about my favorite band without coming across as just some super-mega-fan with my head in the clouds, I should probably start at the beginning. After all, if album sales are any indication, there are tens of millions of people in the U.S. who have never heard of Chicago alt-rock band Wilco.
Still undecided on how you’re voting come November? Here are four events dedicated to the dissemination of information on ballot initiatives, economic policies and how voting shapes the political and social landscape.
A forum will be held tonight at the East Bend Library in conjunction with the League of Women Voters. The forum is non-partisan and will focus on ballot initiatives. The event starts at 5:15 is free and open to the public.
Tomorrow morning the Bend Chamber hosts a Town Hall Breakfast Forum with guest speaker Neil Bryant. Bryant, a former State Senator and attorney with the local firm Bryant, Lovlien & Jarvis, will discuss each ballot measure and the implications if ratified. The event is at 7:30am at the Bend Golf & Country Club. $30 for members and $40 for non-members.
According to Jackson Miller, Oregonians participate in the political ritual of voting on citizen initiatives with more frequency than any other group in the US and these citizen-generated measures have dramatically transformed the state’s political and social landscape. Learn more by attending his presentation entitled Know Politics: Oregon’s Controversial Ballot Initiatives at 2pm Saturday at the downtown Bend Public Library. Free.
James Foster, OSU Cascades political science professor and author of Bong Hits for Jesus discusses Keynesian v. laissez faire economic policies in the presentation Know Politics: Broccoli, Marijuana, and Commerce: FDR or Ayn Rand? Given the divergent and often polarizing philosophies of both the presidential candidates and their respective parties the discussion of Keynesian v. laissez faire policies is especially relevant. 2pm Sunday at the Sisters Public Library. Free.
In an interview for Men’s Fitness, Matthew Fox responded to a question that Bendites already know the answer to.
Interviewer Nate Millado asked, Why Bend?
“Oregon is America’s best-kept secret. It has a lot of beauty, a lot of change in climate and terrain, lakes and rivers. You've got skiing and snowboarding in Mount Bachelor, which is 20 minutes from our house. Bike trails that branch out into the wilderness. Oregon is an amazing place for mountain biking. I can speak from experience because I haven’t been driving lately. And five minutes outside of Bend, I’m in the middle of nowhere, and I feel right back at home.”
For the full interview, dubbed "Matthew Fox, Uncensored" click here.
In this week's issue of the Source, I shared a handful of albums that perhaps mostly just in name are appropriate for the Halloween season. The exception to that was the self-titled debut from Brooklyn duo ERAAS.
Born out of two remaining members from long running avant garde rock group APSE, what ERAAS does is keep their legacy of dark emotional music going. Their sound is truly haunting and perfect for sharing around the holiday. Don't believe me? Try sitting in a dark bedroom with a single candle flickering across the room and see if your significant other lets you get away with it for more than five minutes.
Truthfully though, there is much more to this album than scary music. It's spiritual and it's raw. It's also quite beautiful. Listen to the record below and see if you agree.
Half a dozen people shared their concerns about a new noise ordinance at a Bend City Council work session Wednesday.
But ultimately the council did not make any changes to the law passed earlier this summer.
The main concern of citizen speakers such as Wesley Ladd, owner of The Horned Hand, and other people in the local music and live events community was not so much the parameters of the law, but its enforcement.
"How it's written I don’t think it’s a problem," said Ladd, whose business has received the only citation for noise since the new law was passed in June. "It's more about the enforcement of it. It leaves a lot of officer discretion."
It's not everyday that we get smart hip-hop in Bend.
This week we get it twice—Zion I tonight and Macklemore and Ryan Lewis on Friday. Click on the links to read our reviews, written by our own Mix Master Maffey.
Since we've been feeling hip-hop deprived, we'll be going to both shows. Zion I's new album, Shadowboxing, blends old-school-style beats with progressive lyrics and calls on the Bay-Area duo's 20-plus years of recording experience to make a very tight record. You can stream the 2012 release at djbooth.net.
Zion I
8:30 pm, Wed., Oct. 17
Warren Miller’s Flow State is your Saturday night/Sunday night solution.
Here's why: Beautiful snowriding shots set to dubstep, beer on tap, free giveaways from local retailers AND...
your $20 ticket GETS YOU ONE LIFT TICKET TO MT. BACHELOR! Yes, this is for real.
Our partners over at Lay It Out Events really want you to have a good time. And so do we. We just gave away two tickets to Flow State and we have two more to give away! Stay tuned to our blog and Facebook page for more.
Like free stuff? Good. Powderhouse, Mountain Supply, Great Outdoors and others will be on hand with loads of new gear which they will throw into the crowd with abandon. Plus, if you fill out a simple form you’ll be entered to win one of three prizes from Warren Miller, where the top prize is a heli-ski trip in B.C. So, there’s that.
Doug Hoschek is banking on Bendites giving a hoot about where their gear is made.
Hoschek, the man who created Polarfeece, is opening a factory store in the Old Mill Marketplace, next door to Oregon CrossFit and just east of Strictly Organic where he will sell Made in the U.S.A. long underwear, sleeping bags and insulated jackets. He hopes to open by Nov. 1.
The appeal, according to Hoschek is that the products are made in America and cheaper than their off-shore counterparts, often sold by REI and others. According to Hoschek, REI sold his brand of synthetic long underwear for years before opting for an even lower-cost option made in China.
Hoschek said that it's not uncommon for the outdoor industry to look to Asia for manufacturing not only for their cheap labor but also for their relaxed environmental standards—a topis he's recently taken issue with in his new memoir Polar Pollution.
