Say No to the Keystone XL Pipeline

There is so much to be said about the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, but at the end of the day it comes down to the idea of justice.  Justice, because the companies that stand to profit from the project are destroying our climate and that of our children in the process.  Fast Company just posted an article that listed the Alberta Tar Sands as one of the 14 Carbon Bomb projects, that if exploited, would lead to disastrous long-term temperature increases.  Even the Dalai Lama and Nobel Peace Laureates are against this thing.

Yes, we use oil everyday. But stopping the Keystone XL is a crucial first step to creating a safe future for all of us.  It will send a strong signal to oil, coal, and gas companies around the world that people are pissed off at their reckless strong-arming of our energy policy and are prepared to take true action that will cure us of our fossil fuel addiction.  We are already capable of doing this through existing renewable energy technologies and smart energy efficiency policies.  And if it's jobs you're worried about - research from Cornell shows that the project would "kill more jobs than it creates by reducing investment in the clean energy economy."

On Sunday thousands of people will convene on Washington D.C. for the largest climate rally in this nation’s history.  I’m going, because this is one of those moments where we, as everyday citizens, have power.  By showing up in massive numbers, the media will take notice and that will give Obama and the State Department license to reject the pipeline.  This could actually work, people.

The Sierra Club is arranging for free buses and cars to take people from all over the country.  You should consider going. You won’t be alone.

Here are some tunes that try to put this exciting moment in history into perspective.  I imagine masses of people of all ages marching around the White House in slow motion, with no sound, but this music.  Then there would be cuts to shots of tar sands extraction and oil executives watching the protest on the news.

These are two runner's up:

Jeff Tweedy - The Ruling Class

The Cure - Faith (Tienanman Square Version)

And here are some reliable links that will explain the situation:

• The Keystone XL Project in a 4 minute video (NRDC)
• Project facts via the National Resources Defense Council
• Tar Sands and the Carbon Numbers (NYTimes)
• Is it worth it? (Patagonia)
• Why are tar sands worse than regular oil? [video] (Josh Fox, Academy Award Nominated Director of Gasland).
• "When This Oil Spills, It's a Whole New Monster" [stream] (NPR)
• Game Over for the Climate (James Hansen of NASA via NYTimes)
• Video from last year's XL protest - 10,000 strong (DemocracyNow)

Coverage of previous pipeline oil spills:

• Michigan
• Yellowstone River, Montana

image: NYTimes

The Long Journey Home

Saying goodbye to the Doug Firs and hello to the people.

As it turns out, America is beautiful.  We all just need to get outside more.
I just got back from a coast-to-coast trek across this great country with my Dad.  We visited too many microbreweries to count, built campfires under the stars and generally got on each others' nerves. 

These are the songs that make a roadtrip worthwhile
and will always remind me of those 4,632 miles.

1. John Prine - Flashback Blues
   Thanks to Johnny for turning me on to The Singing Mailman Delivers.
2. Tom Vek - A Chore
   All packed up...
   
3. Waylon Jennings - Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way
   Cruise control
4. George Harrison - Wah-Wah
5. Dawes - My Girl To Me
   Dawes albums are the closest I'll get to books on tape.
   
6. The Wood Brothers - When I Was Young
7. Jerry Douglas, Russ Barenberg, Edgar Meyer - Big Bug Shuffle
   I used to drink coffee. Now I listen to Big Bug Shuffle.
8. The Middle East - Hunger Song
   No action is boring or overlooked when you listen to The Middle East.  Every day has destiny attached to it.  Checking the GPS becomes an epic discussion of charts and routes to the Motherland. 
   
9. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - The Wind Cries Mary
   We were fortunate enough to visit Marin County, California where Jimi serenaded The Monterey Pop festival-goers in 1967.  With his aggressive, loud style it was refreshing to return to Mary - an unflinching poem with utterly beautiful guitar-work.  I can't imagine something this intimate, head-strong and powerful being created today.  I couldn't find an mp3 version from Monterey, but I encourage you to listen to a live version instead of the studio.
   
10. LCD Soundsystem - Home
    Any long journey that ends in New York needs an LCD track.  Home is the song from This is Happening that stuck around for me.
    
11. College - The Energy Story
12. The War on Drugs - Come To The City
    I must have listened to TWOD's Slave Ambient upwards of 10 times on this trip.  It flows like a good book and begs close listening.  Fall roads and late-night trips really bring out the album's core.  Highly recommended.
13. The Arcade Fire - Une Annee Sans Lumiere
    End it at a sprint.
    
    
    
    Image: Noel

MFNW - Day Four

Typhoon in Pioneer Square

Saturday
Explosions in the Sky
The Antlers
Typhoon
Eluvium

Portland's Living Room was the perfect setting to experience the instrumental post-rock of Explosions in the Sky and the big-picture ambient droning of Eluvium.  Pioneer Courthouse Square is a brick covered park in downtown Portland that is surrounded by skyscrapers and constant city life.  

If you bought a wristband to MusicFest NW you were able to go to every club show and one of the big three shows (Iron & Wine, Band of Horses and Explosions).  Having seen Band of Horses before (excellent) and being not so enthused about I&W's newest release I opted to see Explosions in the Sky again given the urban setting.  The fact that you had to put some thought into going to this show meant that everyone there really did want to see one of these bands.  You could tell this type of crowd could get into emotionally charged power chords and maybe even a Friday Night Lights episode or two.

Can you count how many people are wearing feathers in their caps?

I have been a big fan of Matthew Cooper's ambient releases as Eluvium for a long time.  Ambient music requires a certain setting and the listener to be in certain mood in order for it not to sound like overhyped nonsense.  Don't click on these links and expect to immediately "get it".  Don't even try to listen.  Instead I encourage you to listen to something like Indoor Swimming at the Space Station  as you go to sleep tonight.  Eluvium excels at transferring emotion and atmosphere into long pieces that truly transport the listener to a different level of consciousness.  Time seems to slow down and reality is observed rather than experienced.  I believe they call it "an out of body experience."
   Going to an ambient concert is bizarre in that nothing much happens in the way of visuals but yet there is an incredible layering of sound for your brain to process.  Eluvium's Matthew Cooper (Portland via Kentucky) came on stage in a humble manner, picked up his guitar and slowly hypnotized everyone in attendance.  It didn't make sense at first, but once he had looped a few guitar lines without you noticing, the streetcar that could be seen over the venue wall slowed down and the sun on the skyscrapers turned a little more orange as their shadows shifted to the right.  By the time Cooper finished Underwater It Glowed I had to shake my head to remember where I was.  He played a few gentle piano pieces like Radio Ballet that didn't quite hit home for me like they do on the album.  He ended by looping a dark, sustained piano tone to the point where it absorbed every other sound. 
  And then it stopped.

Typhoon huddle up before the show.

Oregon native Typhoon was next up.  Kyle Morton could put on an interesting singer-songwriter show all by himself but he takes it to the next level by inviting 12 or 13 ragtag musicians to bounce through his serious harmonies with him.  I was getting hints of Arcade Fire.  Two synchronized drummers made the live show pretty fun to watch and the band has a clear chemistry on stage as if they're delighted to be together let alone playing to a big audience.
   The Antlers play some version of post-rock that I never care to listen to again.  Too many bad hairdos and I'm sure there's some street performing drummer that could have done a better job in the percussion department.  Although there was a cool moment when a fire truck drove by with its siren blaring and surprisingly, instead of ruining the music it went perfectly with the sparse, distorted guitars and moody keys.  

Explosions in the Sky playing that one song where the running back beats that one tackle only to turn around and see his girlfriend necking with the new kid in the bleachers.

The guys in Explosions have clearly been seeing some success.  They know which songs people have played on repeat late at night while they waited for sunrise or walked by that one swing set.  First Breath After Coma and Your Hand In Mine definitely steal the show.  They also have somewhat of a light show that adds to the "epic" effect.  

Seeing them again reminds me why they were so cool to begin with.  They play conventional rock instruments in a different manner entirely.  Instead of simply picking a rock beat, drummer Chris Hrasky will do a build up on the cymbals to set the scene and then fire off machine gun snares.  Basic song structures are nowhere to be found and stories are told through quiet periods (there were literally a few moments of complete silence) and suspenseful, quick passages.  Long before Friday Night Lights hit the small screen EITS evoked the stark desolation of small Texas towns (its home state).  Yet despite this bleak setting their is a sense that change can occur, that there are bigger players at work here....that there is hope.
  

Musicfest Northwest wraps up under a harvest moon.

Images: Noel

MFNW - Day One

 Besides reading up on Portland's Music Fest Northwest through the publication that hosts the event, I didn't know what to expect.  Every lineup description had a "you have to seen this band" feel to it, but let's face it - do I really want to see a band named CJ and the Dolls?  So in an effort to get to the bottom of what this city has to offer and find the pulse of the Northwest's music scene I picked up a pricy wristband and began my quest.  

   Let's get all the SXSW comparisons out of the way now so we can get on with it.  If SXSW is the bigger older brother with cool clothes and a connection to good parties, MFNW is the young, scrappy brother who is kind of quiet in person but makes damn good music in the basement.  SXSW has been going on longer (since '87) and attracts bigger names.  It is also seen as the proverbial "headphones" of international label heads and music/culture bloggers.  And what I like most about SXSW is the fact that the majority of the action all takes place on 4 or 5 parallel streets. If you don't like a band, no problem, just walk next door where a Japanese punk band is sampling the Sega Genesis theme song.

   MFNW (which used to be co-hosted by SXSW's management) is more spread out which noticeably detracts from a music festival's vibe.  If you happened to be visiting Portland during the event you might notice the big stage in Pioneer Square, but you probably wouldn't make the connection that there is a city-wide festival going on.  The distance means there is a lack of community to the festival that is so apparent in Austin.  That being said, this encourages festivalgoers to take part in the PDX past time of biking.  You feel pretty cool when your waiting at a red light with six other bicyclists all headed to an underground latenight DJ set in a warehouse.  

What MFNW lacks in proximity, it makes up for in style. 

I think the bottom line is: not as many shows, but you're bound to really like one of the bands you see at each venue.  Also whoever was in charge of pairing bands together did an excellent job.  Each show had a general genre or vibe that permeated throughout the night.  (i.e. Explosions in the Sky and Eluvium).  

Kelly Blair Bauman at Bunk Bar

Day One

Crooked Fingers

Sean Flinn & the Royal We

Kelly Blair Bauman

The Heligoats

 @ Bunk Bar

 The Festival got off to a great start at the Bunk Bar with The Heligoats. Bunk Bar is a cool, 200 person spot that makes great grilled cheeses.  Despite the mellow acoustic guitars on most of their albums, The Heligoats new-ish full band lineup really leaned into some imressive punky jams.  The vocals remind me a bit of the brilliantly simple Jon Swift.  Kelly Blair Bauman cooled it off a bit with distinct basslines and dark, atmospheric folk.  Sean Flinn & The Royal We clearly spend time on each song.  Everything revolves around Flinn's vocal inflections to the point that I thought I was listening to Conor Oberst perform a musical.  It wasn't my cup of tea, but my friends visiting from Corvallis could get into the lyrical orchestration.  That was it for me.  I had listened to Crooked Fingers beforehand and opted for sleep over another acoustic sideproject (Eric Bachmann is from Archers of Loaf fame).

The Heligoats -  Goodness Gracious

Kelly Blair Bauman - Wedding Day

Sean Flinn & The Royal We - Flightless Bird

Images: Noel

MFNW Preview

 

All my new-playlist-digging time has been devoted to biking around to different shows at Music Fest Northwest this week.  (Think Austin's SXSW, but smaller and with more moustaches.)  Now I don't see this blog as a music journalism site, but when an expertly curated music festival happens to occur in your city and you find yourself blogging about music, then well, I guess you should at least mention the highlights. 

All that and more is still to come, because the Fest is only getting started (it began on Wednesday), but in the meantime here are some well-crafted songs that I have come across while sifting through the largely underground lineup.

 Celilo - Baroque Blues myspace

 Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard

Typhoon - The Sickness Unto Death/The Honest Truth (first video)

The Heligoats - Goodness Gracious 
and Glass of Water (second video)
 

p.s. If you have time look at the Willamette Week's write-up on each artist.  They manage to capture each act's essence, history and hook in a few sentences.  Excellent reporting. 

Beautiful Oregon - A Roadtrip Mixtape

I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown; for going out, I found, was really going in.
- John Muir

This past year I have been fortunate enough to live in the great state of Oregon.  Portland has an intoxicating vibe of idealism and creativity, but for me the best part of the state has been the unparalleled access to stunning nature areas.  Nowhere else can you get dense old-growth forests, fog-drenched coastal cliffs, clear blue lakes and majestic mountains all within a few hours drive.  The further you get from the city the more it seems like Mother Nature is the one in charge and man is merely permitted to stay on the property.

Of course in order to reach the wilderness you are required to traverse narrow, winding roads where the only sign of civilization is the skeleton of an old barn and a Datsun pickup with weeds growing through it. 

            And on these roads you need music.

Below are many of the tried and tested songs that have made many of these roadtrips special.  Hopefully you can find a way to enjoy them too.  I tried my best to capture the vast and epic quality of Oregon's landscapes.  The first half is all about the open road and the excitement of what is to come.  And the second half is for the night ride home.  Nothing but headlights on the road.  All the windows are down and everyone in the car is trying catch a glimpse of the moon in between the trees. 

  If you want the full experience check out my flickr page for some of the
year's better pictures while you listen.

1. Paul Simon - Dazzling Blue
   There is a certain spaciousness to this song - like there could be so much more going on, but he keeps it simple to great effect.
2. Junip - In Every Direction
   Jose Gonzalez's side project is not to be missed.
3. My Morning Jacket - Circuital
   Great songwriting, americana vibe and raw power make MMJ the obvious go-to on a roadtrip (at least in the States).
4. The Wood Brothers - Luckiest Man
5. The Benders - I Can't Wait
6. The Clean - In the Dreamlife You Need a Rubber Soul
   This is the best song I've heard all year.  I must have been asleep at the wheel, because the Clean have been around since '78.   Very excited for their new release, Mister Pop, on 9/8.  They remind me of The Waterboys. 
7. Tapes 'n Tapes - Freak Out
   Great chorus.  Not to mention a clever video.  I gave these guys another shot after Outside called them one of the finest garage rock outfits around.
8. Phish - Golden Age (TV on the Radio cover, Gorge Ampitheatre 8.6.2011)
   TV on the Radio got the Phish treatment at the Gorge this month.  Personally I think they do it better than the original.  They tease out the subdued funk and know how to make the chorus really hit.
9. Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon - Middle of the Road
   Suntan lotion. Shades. Snacks - check.
10. Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood - Can't Find My Way Home
11. Bon Iver - HoloceneIn part named after a Portland club.
    
12. Great Lake Swimmers - River's Edge
    Great Lake Swimmers know how to set an atmosphere.  If the lyrics alone don't get you, the way Tony Dekker sings them will.
13. Bibio - Saint Christopher
    Bibio knows what I'm talking about.  His video for The Ephemeral Bluebell was filmed along the Oregon Coast Highway.
14. Geotic - Beaming Husband
    Will Wiesenfeld of Bath's has an ambient side project called Geotic.  Definitely some gems in his catalog so far.  Get them for free here.

 

images: Noel